Jedi Crossing
by Quick Zero
Summary: A young Jedi, trying to find his place in the universe, is trying to track down and find who killed his mother years ago. But he has almost nothing to go on, however, when sent on a peculiar mission by the Jedi Council, he finds a shocking clue...
1. Unusual Missions

Disclaimer: This story is based on George Lucas's series of movies Star Wars…I claim most of the characters, I just base the ideas on the movie…so don't sue me…

Enjoy…

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I walked into the room silently as the doors hissed shut behind me. After looking around at the council I faced the head masters Yoda and Mace Windu. I bowed to them and waited for them to speak.

"Summoned you we have, because much turbulence within the federation we sense," Yoda began.

"What kind of turbulence?" I questioned.

"The force is growing unusually strong in the center of the federation, but the odd and most disturbing thing is that it's not coming from only one entity," Mace Windu sighed. "But as more Jedi's die their force reappears inside the federation territory."

"How can that be? Do you think the federation found a way to revive the dead Jedi?" I was shocked.

"Worse we fear, infiltrate you must, the core of the federation," Yoda sounded foreboding.

"Yes master, I'll do my best to discover the source of these 'reincarnations' if that is what they actually are," I answered dutifully.

"Not so fast Déshawn, you'll need help. I'm going to send Raena Colonya with you, since your mission is going to involve stealth you will need the best with you. Whatever you do, you must NOT be discovered," Mace Windu stressed to us.

"Of course master, I wouldn't want to injure anyone within the Federation," I joked in a formal way getting an annoyed look from Raena. I usually received at least a smile from one of the Master Jedi's with these types of jokes, however something was seriously wrong.

"NO detection of your presence must be allowed to spread Déshawn, this is vitally important," Mace Windu's voice was laced wit concern, and it was the closest he'd ever gotten to being afraid and this shook me. One of my stronger pillars seemed to weaken although he didn't show the slightest crack.

"Yes master, my apologies. I'll leave immediately," I tried to recover my mistake.

"Unnecessary an apology," Yoda always made me feel comfortable with his ability to show his emotions to the fullest extent while showing no change in composure. "Protected the soul is by laughter, and encouraged it is. But timing, too, is essential; careful, you must be."

"Yes master, is that all?" I asked eager to get into battle again.

"Yes Déshawn, but be careful, your urge for battle shows, and you must suppress it this time," Mace Windu gave me an indicative look.

"Yes master."

"May the force be with you," Mace Windu and Yoda both bid me.

"And you masters," I bowed out and turned towards the door but Raena stood still.

I walked out in the hall to wait for her, and trying to not listen in on her conversation, I close my eyes and meditate for a minute. Reaching into myself, where I knew my force dwelled the strongest I tried to focus on the mission ahead, but I was mentally pulled into the room where Raena was talking to the council.

"I'm worried about working with him on a mission of this sensitivity, he is extremely skilled, but he's not entirely humble. I'm afraid he might cause an eruption," she complained.

I opened my eyes and tried to quell the anger that had risen in me at her words. Knowing I was sensitive to any questioning of my integrity I swept off to prevent an altercation I didn't want to cause. Reaching my room I unhook my light saber from my belt and drop it on the bed. Going through my drawers I try to find my smoke pellets but I only run across one of them. I pocket it, take off my brown cloak replacing it with my black one, I grab my mini-oxygen tank and put my light saber back onto my belt. Then I leave to return to my meeting point to wait on Raena. Within a couple of seconds she arrives with a suppressed air about her, and I sensed something she had been hiding from me was now buried even deeper. As I went to speak her brisk manner showed that she wanted no prolonged conversation lest she expose herself to, possibly, the one she's hiding from.

"Hey Raena what's goi-" I start before she cuts me off.

"You're late where were you?" She says in a curt tone.

"Says the girl arriving after me," I snicker.

"I saw I had time to leave and come back, and clearly did as you're just getting here," she snapped.

"Guess I should sprint next time huh?" I answer raising an eyebrow.

"If you're going to blow our cover joking around, then stay behind."

"And if you're going to die because you piss the wrong person off, you should choose your words more carefully," I forcibly grab her arm and answer in a tone I haven't used since I first met Trance 5 years ago.

She yanks her arm out of my hand, which willingly releases her from my strong grip, and storms off towards the pod in a manner indicating she hoped to have a reason to leave me, such as my steadily slow movement, but she knew she couldn't because she'd need all of my skills and I could suffice without hers. I smirked openly and not because I'd caused her to back down, but because I'd opened her up and she didn't even know it, as she just admitted to me what she had to the Jedi Masters. However my smile disappeared as I realized that Yoda's words were proven once again that "blinds and overrides all composure, anger does." On that note I doubled my pace and barely leapt into the cockpit to the passengers seat. Leaning back in the comfortable furniture, again for the second time in one day, thought of my past. And the most important figure had been Shomari "Deuce" Jackson. His nickname was Deuce for the double knives he kept as his light saber although they were ¾ the length of a normal light saber, which showed extreme outer body strength on his part because his blades moved faster than any known Jedi's. However Shomari knows there is one person that could match his speed, although nobody had ever watched him and me duel each other with steel weapons. However steel weapons were 95 of our hand-to-hand combat successes. My brother was a difficult person to understand, many times our relationship as direct blood relatives was the only reason for my life, because as close to him as Shomari believed I was, I knew he was out of my range. And this made 3 different truths in the world: the mutual beliefs between me and him that we were the same in combative techniques, the outside worlds mutual belief that I was far beyond Shomari's level because of my inexcusably honed ability to control the force within me and others, and my personal knowledge, not just belief, that I could never beat Shomari hand-to-hand, and that my victory would have to be one of brain power. Ruthless, unforgiving, and the most caring person in the world, Shomari was my only brother and only person I've ever really hoped would not come into deaths arms. Coming out of my reverie I looked up to the navigation HUD on the piloting controls showing we were only 60 of the way there. So I figured I'd open her up some more with a few well-chosen words.

"So tell me, why don't you trust me?" I asked leaning back in the chair to her annoyance.

"What do you mean?" she stammered. "Did you lis- come up with crazy ideas? Like the fact you are an accomplished Jedi."

I smiled that she'd already almost slipped already; this was going to be too easy for me.

"No you told me," I responded in a nonchalant and honest voice. Her cheeks glowed crimson.

"W-when, what do you mean?" she answered speeding the ship up.

"When we just fought, you told me you didn't trust me," I slowly backed the speed back down when she glanced at me with silent abilities. "You said 'If you're going to blow our cover joking around, then stay behind' clearly to me."

"Well I didn't mean it, I was mad, you know how that goes," she tried to laugh it off.

"That reminds me of something Yoda said about anger, that it 'blinds and overrides all composure.'" I quoted.

This must've done the trick, "you know, you are a good Jedi. I guess you do listen better than I thought."

"So then what was that comment about me as an accomplished Jedi being a 'crazy idea?'"

"I guess I was wrong huh?"

"So tell me what you know about this mission, because I'm clearly under informed," I sat straight up looking at her seriously for the first time, since I'd gotten her to confide useless facts in me without being upset although the important one was still only while she was angry.

"What do you mean? I know as much as you."

"Now your lying, otherwise I'd be out here alone looking for the one partner I actually want, and getting to go through the federation in massive battle waves like I like it."

"So they switched your forte for one time, the variety will do you good."

"Bull, they sent the best with me because it's excessively important that I don't act out as I'm usually allowed to. In fact I think this is the one time they told me how to go about getting information. Every single other time I was on my free will. So they had to have told you more or you might've let me go like my other partners have. So tell me what's going on." I elaborated while waving my hand clearing non-existent dust from in front of my face using telekinetic powers, one of the "small things" that made my force control so much greater than my brothers.

"Well, I can't tell you."

"Fine then, seeing as how I'm 2nd most important person on this mission I thought I'd be entitled to this information," I complained baiting her response.

"Well seeing as how you yourself named me most important then I guess I'm entitled to-," she started with a cocky tone.

"Wait a minute, who said you were even on the list of importance on this mission?" I continued my silent exercises.

Taken aback she recovered trying to use my explanatory tactics, "well seeing as there's two of us, and our clearly 3rd foe, I would hope you didn't place him above me and that would make me first am I correct?"

"Not even close, I'm the second, you'll know the most important in a few hours, and the 3rd is in fact our foe," I answered. "So that'd make you 1 for 3 right?"

"You know, at your mention of a third party that makes me wonder, why don't you trust me?"

"Unlike you, I have no reason to trust my current partner, but tell me, what clued you in so quickly?" I lean back again intending to delve deeper into her mind.

"Probably when you said 'I'd be out here alone looking for the one partner I actually want' I caught on," she sounded smug.

"Well you're finally right, I don't trust anyone that has a reason to not turn their back on me, however that also means I get to keep a close eye on their hands," I riddle my answer with an metaphorical image.

"That was a nice metaphor but I missed all of it," she answered.

"It means, anyone that has a reason to not trust me isn't trust worthy themselves, but if they watch me, then I can watch them," I explain.

"Okay, point for you, now tell me this, who is this third and most important person?" she answered.

"Only if you tell me why you associated the two as a synonym."

"Well seeing as how I only got one right I assumed that was the start of a roll, and also I thought that I was running out of choices, and hoped you didn't introduce another party."

"Wonderful, this reminds me of a Sherlock and Watson conversation." I was beginning to enjoy this.

She spun to look at me shaking her silky and beautiful hair; I grabbed the chance to slow the throttle back some more, "Sherlock and Watson?"

"Detectives from an Earth T.V. show," I responded quickly, anticipating her confusion.

"And I would be Watson?" she answered.

"Exactly," I smiled boosting her confidence with an insult she couldn't understand.

"So who is this person?"

"Deuce," I answered in a quieter and reserved voice, waiting for her shocked response.

"Deuce?" She yelled angrily, triggering sibling defensive responses and I ran through the choices with computer speed. "He's a criminal!"

My right hand swept my black robe out of the way and my left hand mentally summoned my light saber and, keeping it retracted, I put it to the side of her throat while still retracted. Her mouth opened in a silenced gasp.

"Never…speak ill of my brother," I said hoping she didn't say anything to make me ignite the blade.

"You're…brother?" she skipped the apology; I knew she was sorry she said it even if she didn't lament it.

"Yes, and if you're lucky, he won't kill you like he's done some of my old partners. Which is why the council started sending me out alone," I stand up in a fury.

"He's worse than most bounty hunters because he's slaughtered masses for simplistic and meaningless reasons, at least they get paid for it," she yelled stopping the ship and matching my gestures.

Stunned but looking nothing of the sort, I backed down in unnoticeable ways and decided to hand her some points in my game.

"No he hasn't, he's never killed more than 3 people at once. He was set up those other times, because people readily believe it." I said back defending him.

"Why does he need to kill at all? He's supposedly one of the best fighters around, he's won every match he's been in! I know he's good enough to win without killing, so why does he need to?"

"Maybe it's because he isn't handling the loss of both our parents as well as me." I put my light saber back while yelling to get her comfortable with continuing her onslaught and so I didn't activate it if I lost control again.

"You think that's hard? Have you ever watched an entire village consisted of nothing but those you care about slaughtered and you kept alive to be tortured for fun?" she screamed back.

"Yes! That village was my home, those I loved were my parents, and the torture is this life! And it's worse for me because they stole half my brothers soul!" I sat down quickly and put my feet back onto the control panels pushing myself back unknowingly showing her that I was going deeper into her mind.

Then she smiled, saving our personal troubles for later conversation, possibly for if we got through the mission with a greater mutual trust. Her smile broke into a slight laugh and her eyes sparkled, intoxicating me, but I held my mental stability, a feat not easily accomplished with her smile and eyes in unison.

"What's so funny?" I yelled, for the first time in the conversation unsure of what was coming, but already running through responses.

"You're playing with my mind!" She giggled and I was suddenly in awe.

"You've got to be kidding me!" I matched her laughter.

"Oh no, Mr. Slick just gave himself away!" She was reveling in her final triumph over me.

"What are you on about?" I almost winked at her yet it came out as squinted eyes from my smile.

"You've leaned back with your feet up like that twice so far this trip," she smiled at me and I could see her wit surfacing.

"Okay," I admitting exposure, "but how do you know this isn't some habit of mine?"

"First of all, habits are supposed to have been weeded out by the discipline training of a Jedi, and also, you put your feet up adjacent to some kind of confrontation between us, or some kind of trading of wit," she swore she had me.

"Just one major flaw in your reasoning, you said I did it twice, and you named two reasons why I put my feet up, Watson" I smiled, she left herself open once again so I threw in the extra remark.

She fell silent, and I knew I had the ultimately quicker wit because I'd put my feet up a total of 3 times, although I resolved to take better note of my bodily gestures as she was 100 right. So I sat up and decided to finally get to the root of her being.

"I was messin with you," I admitted with childish guilt.

Perked up she looked at me almost glad I'd said that, as I'd hope.

"You know, you're almost too smart. You've controlled what I've said and how I said it since we met up almost too well," she said. "You shouldn't play with people like that."  
"I don't believe in guessing what's coming," I said leaning back again since I'd been exposed to the habit. "That's how I lost most of my family."

"About that what happened with that?" she inquired.

"We're here," I stood up and turned towards the door, "and next time keep a closer eye on your throttle control."

Realizing just how much I was in control of our conversation, she saw I'd slowed the ship down so we could talk longer.

"Why you wicked, slippery…" she was at a lost for words, but she recovered. "Well I guess I'll have to fill you in on our way through this labyrinth."

As she walked by and dragged her hand along my chest in a seductive way, I realized just how much I wanted her, so I grabber her hand and she stopped, looking into my eyes with her pretty chocolate windows to her soul, "you know, it's more of a straight shot than a labyrinth. So I guess I'm navigating and you are security."

"Works for me," she once again gave in to me for a final time.

Walking out of the door I turned the corner and saw a mass of robots all eyes on doors and ventilation, I smiled.


	2. Failures Not Noticed

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"Works for me," she once again gave in to me for a final time.

Walking out of the door I turned the corner and saw a mass of robots all eyes on doors and ventilation, I smiled.

"Okay you're the stealth master, tell me how we let them know we're here without them seeing us," I asked her in a whisper.

"Why would we do that?" she answered.

"In my trips here, they've learned 2 things about me, which I kept consistent in case something like this came up. Whenever I'm sneaking, I like to hide in the vents, and I like all out confrontations with enemies stacked against me. So if they think it's only me here, they're going to mass the robots together where I usually come out, in there control room where most the information I seek is going to be, and they're going to check the vents as best as they can. If we know where they are and what they're doing, we can slap them on our way behind their backs." I explained.

"You're brilliant, give me a second to show you heading into a vent, and do what you want from there." She smiled ready to create her famous illusions, but something didn't seem right about her genius plan.

"No, they'd suspect a trap, because I've never been seen going IN to the vent, only coming OUT. Show me slipping behind boxes, because by the time they get back there, I'm usually in the vents then."

"Good thinking," she closed her eyes and glowed a little bit. Then I saw me run out of her chest, and a commotion started up as they checked around the crates.

"My turn to show talents," I whispered.

Closing my eyes, I mentally shut all senses off until I was numb, except for my ears. Reaching in with the Force I heard their conversation.

"Shut off ALL ventilation shafts, and flush the plasma through it! And send in a cam bot." He added as footnote.

I heard the metallic, "yes sir." And nodded to her.

"Stay ahead of me, go ahead and go left. Stay flat against the wall. Stop at the door, their will be robots coming in about 45 seconds while sweeping the room so we gotta move fast." I instructed her and pushed her out of our corner.

Feeling the rush I get when in stressful situations I knew I was back to where I belong. My mind freed itself and became one with the force, taking the limits away from my ability. I put my left hand on my light saber and followed her out crouched low. We reached the door in about ten seconds. I got in front of her and began to work.

"That was 10 seconds, give me a count down." I said briskly and put my hand on the door controls.

"35, 34, 33," she started breathlessly.

I pulled the cover off quickly disconnecting the screws and cords with a small blade of Force.

"30, 29, 28," she turned to make sure nobody noticed us.

"You're sweating. This your first mission?" I asked without looking back at her.

She shook her head continuing her count and grabbing my shoulder, I got worried. "20, 19, 18."

I turned and saw a robot patrolling the corners to spot anyone, such as us.

"Breathe," I said. "Keep counting he's unimportant. Don't kill him they keep track of all active and inactive robots."

"15, 14, 13," she started to sound like she was hyperventilating. I got a little shaken at how close I was cutting it. It would've been easier if I didn't have to keep assuring and instructing her. But I was enjoying her reliance and couldn't wait to see more of her abilities because I'd just found my first partner. Sensing that the robot was about to spot us, I created an invisible ball of Force, I sent it towards the vent plate across the room and it fell down attracting all the robots.

"Once they lose interest over there, they'll be sweeping a lot faster." I said turning back to the door. "Forget these."

I pulled out my light saber, and ignited the glowing blade. I cut through the overhang above us. I wrapped her in a blanket of force and lifting her into the hole, cutting her count off.

"Alright that's enough," I said. "Cut a big hole in the wall you're facing."

She went to work quickly and had it done in one and a half seconds, giving me plenty of time to Force jump to the hole and lift myself up.

"Beautiful job," I said as I stood up.

We found ourselves in a blue-lit tunnel that had smooth walls and curved, I wasn't sure of where it went and if it stayed big enough to walk in, but I had known that it was here.

"Great, now where are we?" she sounded out of breath.

"Calm down, you shouldn't be so worried," I walked ahead of her ignoring her questions.

"I'm sorry, but I don't usually get that close to being caught. I'm always a mile ahead," she said assuming she was sweating from nervousness.

"That's training, we can only simulate so many Droids." I whispered. "Breathe girl, you're hyperventilating."  
"I'm asthmatic," she said.

"Shouldn't matter," I said shortly focusing on watching what was around the curves.

"That's sensitive," she sounded calmer and her personality took hold again, now that she was sure she could ensure we weren't caught personally.

"Fine," I said holding out my hand. "Hold my hand."

I could tell she rolled her eyes by the way her breath came out short and huffy. She grabbed my hand, which I noticed was really was sweaty, and I realized it was also getting hot in here and the air was thick, causing her difficult breathing.

"How long have you noticed it's gotten warmer in here?" I stopped worried about what this place was.

"Since we got in here." She answered.

"Next time tell me," I said sensing ahead as best I could while we turned back. "We gotta get outta here. They've probably flushed plasma down here too. Go back and make sure you don't get seen, tell me all possible ways out, other than the door and vents. I'll stop the plasma."

"You're gonna what?"

"Gonna need that information, go before I lose focus."

She turned and jogged down the tunnel and I saw her turn into the hole she cut. I hoped she'd checked if it was clear to drop down. I shook my head at the shape of her beautiful body and turned back the path ahead of me, which had turned orange, and grew continuously redder. I reached behind me with telekinetic powers and brought the piece of the wall Raena had kicked in. I dropped it in front of me, and I was lucky she'd cut it so big. It almost took up the whole tunnel. I extended my senses to see if there was any space around the tunnel frame. The plasma was now visible and I felt myself getting to the extremes in temperature. I found what I was looking for, and pulled the Force powers back to me as hard as I could. The tunnel creaked, and rocked, and groaned until the shell of the tunnel gave way and collapsed stopping around the chunk of steel I had levitating in front of me. I smiled, turned around and sprinted back to the hole where the makeshift "door" had been. I jumped into the space and put my legs out pinning myself between the walls to hang there. I saw Raena waiting for me, pinned up against the edge of the wall, breath held. She saw me and pointed to the air in front of her indicating there was another approaching Droid. It appeared the effects of my trick had worn off. I pushed up, with a scissor movement of my legs, tucked my body into a ball, and caught myself right at the edge of the hole, upside-down and held my hands out. She grabbed my hands and I yanked her up into the air. I hear her sharp intake of breath and she lands on my legs balancing with perfection on my calves. I see the droid walk into the corner and spot the panel I ripped off. I mentally scolded myself for leaving clues to our presence. I tapped into their com-system again and heard him tell them that I'd been here and must've managed to get through the door somehow hiding the detection of the door's opening. This lightened my heart, until I heard the false tone in his commander's voice.

"Good, then plasma should have killed him, because there's a service shaft on the ceiling in that hallway. Call off the search," then on a different frequency I heard additional instructions by another voice. "Him and his girlfriend must be around here still, find them!"

"Yes sir."

I walked up the side of the wall with my hands until I became a down-facing human platform.

"Raena they're faking on us, they know we're here, they know the plasma didn't work, and they know there is two us," I said quickly. "What's the word on exits?"

"Umm…only one, they're moving crates out of here. We've got to get in one and they'll get us out of here." She said.

"Ideas?" I raised an eyebrow.

"I can get in, but they're too small for you." She sighed hopelessly.

"Perfect, find your way in to one." Hiding the note of despair in my voice, I dropped off of the wall and hung upside-down again. "Jump."

She jumped and I caught her by the waist and lowered her back onto the ground. I dropped and landed on my hands and flipped back onto my feet.

"I'll make sure nobody notices you." I say.

"Okay…Um, don't let anything explode." She said.

"Easy," I smiled at her staring into her hypnotic eyes.

I reached a hand up to rub her soft, silky smooth cheek but she backed her face up and I pulled back embarrassed. Then she kissed me on the cheek and turned off running. Dazed for the first time in my life since I fought Trance I stood rooted to my spot for a second. Then I was snapped back into battle mode by a mental sting from the Force and I sprinted out after Raena.

"Wait here." I stopped her.

I ran to the end of the wall and ran up the side pushing off to the stack of crate, my eyes set on the overhead beams. I hit the side of the crates and pushed back off and up, knocking down the stack opening a couple from the impact, making Raena's job easier. I hit the wall and pushed up and off one final time reaching my hands and pulling up onto the bar. I tapped into their communications again as I swung under bar. I let go of the bar flipping over 3 consecutive bars, and caught another one. I continued to the end of the rows of bars and caught the bar. Then something in their conversation caught my attention.

"SIR! We've found him swinging on the fuel poles," I looked down to see a Droid pull out a gun.

"Get him!" I heard an angry tone on the other end.

Shots rang out and me and I knew I wasn't doing very well as they were loosening the beams above me. As I swung under the final bar, I hit the wall and pushed back off pulling myself up onto the beams overhead.

"Guys, you wouldn't want to make anything explode," I said stopping the shots while thinking quickly.

"Why?" I heard the lead Droid answer.

Stunned I hesitated; this showed a definite intelligence and I had to think. Then I flashed back to when I listened in on Raena complain to the masters: "I'm afraid he might cause an eruption."

"Your little toy might erupt." I answered hoping it was something like a bomb.

The other Droids looked at their leader and he nodded signaling I was right and they would need a different course of action. Unsure of what it was I braced myself upon the rickety beam. Then I heard a jet firing up and I saw the droids all rise up after me simultaneously. I was worried again at their new abilities and intelligence. I hoped they didn't have any extra speed but didn't risk multiple attacks because they could probably coordinate better than simultaneous individual assaults. I guessed this by their unified rise after me. As soon as the first one landed, I spun and kicked him in the chest. Another jumped at me from behind, while I saw another out the corner of my eye, _catch_ his partner, and I knew I would have to be careful. I fell to my stomach and pushed up flipping onto my feet kicking the jumping Droid back. And three other Droids caught him also. I smirked, I'd found that with intelligence they lacked a certain ruthless asset and left themselves open. Only I wasn't sure if it was compassion for allies, or defense against flying objects. So I had to test their reflexes. Hoping they would discern the difference between operating and broken counterparts I grabbed the next Droid in a headlock. Rolling over his back, I twisted his head off and kicked it to another approaching Droid. To my dismay, it ducked the debris as I threw it and confirmed that they could tell when an ally was dead or alive and it was most likely a signal to make the decision of save or avoid. This would make the battle considerably more difficult, but I was sure my light saber was still an unneeded weapon.

I went back into action and kicked the leaning "corpse" of the Droid at the Droid that had ducked his partner. I flipped sideways landing on another Droid, shutting it down on contact, and jumped forwards with a sidekick into another Droid. I jumped straight up into the air twirling stopping myself with a wall of Force, to take a look around and counted about 10 Droids left. I reached into my cloak, and drew intending to finish my work quickly. I began to spin, propelled by the Force; I ignited the blade and began to tear through Droids with ruthlessness to nearly match Shomari. As I neared the last Droid I smirked to myself, my masters had been wrong; the detection of my presence wouldn't cause a problem. I'd stopped any explosions, and I got to slaughter the droids. I extended my arm for a final slash through the miniscule army, and was instantly lucky I'd extended myself because I was stopped: by another light saber. I looked up expecting a Dark Jedi, but saw only a Droid, and my eyes followed the blade to the handle to his hand. I was confused beyond belief. I had hoped it'd been because somebody had stabbed him from behind, but I could've sworn Yoda hadn't seen this before. I jumped back and attempted to hide my shock by cockily putting my light saber away. As soon as the Droid came in with its "light saber" I noticed the dim glow, and it was either turned low, which I doubted, or it was a weak imitation of a light saber. I created a ball of destructive Force inside the Droid, exposing my unique talent, and snapped my fingers causing to it to explode internally. Then I closed my eyes and tapped into their communications mentally, hoping to catch a hint of where Raena was.

"Sir, the docking room has been annihilated." I heard from a Droid.

"Damn! Where's the girl?" came the voice I'd been hearing the whole time.

"We don't know sir, she was last spotted in the docking room." Answered the Droid.

This lifted my spirit knowing she hadn't been found, or it might have meant that she'd been trapped in the cart. I dropped off of the beam landing on the tallest pile of crates; it tipped over and I fell down with it letting it smash and I saw a corpse roll out, eyes rolled in the back of it's skull and body turned sheet white.

"Oh my god!" I gasped suffocated from the stench and fear.

Then my mind flashed and I saw a beautiful woman curled in the same position. I got dizzy with nausea and fell to one knee as I heard tortured screaming. I spit out the vomit that'd risen up and stood up to my full height again and began to take off where they'd carried Raena. Suddenly, from around the corner of one of the crate stack, a red light saber blade flashed out in front of me, one quarter shorter than my single blade. It was the one person I knew could help me in this situation.

"You're walking into something you have no clue about," I heard a quiet, dangerous voice say.

Taking hold of his saber's extension chip I reversed the polarity with a snap causing the blade to retract until he cut off the power. I flipped it back the second he cut it off so it didn't come back out.

"How have you been Déshawn?" Shomari holstered his weapon.

"Not as well as you clearly, tell me what you know."

"Obvious more than you, otherwise you wouldn't be here," Shomari scolded my lack of knowledge.

"The council told me nothing but to keep undetected. And about the Jedi powers that have been dying and reappearing within the Federation HQ. So you wanna tell me what happened to our victim over there?"

"The living Force," he held his hand up, as if he was choking somebody, to my throat without touching me, "sucked right out of him."

His emphasis on the word "suck" made me dizzy again as I thought back to the beautiful woman I'd just seen.

"How," I said sitting on a stray crate.

"Not sure, but Lance has some little gadget that does this for him. And he's using the stolen powers to energize some weapon of his. It's sort of like a 3rd Death Star, only it's based on molecular disruption, so no type of shield can withstand it without an equal counter attack that'd cause an explosion of epic proportions."

"Then we need to get Raena quickly," I said turning and heading towards the door she was carried through.

"Raena? Anything for her," he said smirking.

I stopped. "Why?"

"Cause you're clearly infatuated."

"Lead the way little brother."

"Just be sure to never show that kind of weakness again, even when you're alone."

I didn't deny it because he was right, so I followed him out the door.

"Deuce where is the main command room, not the control panel."

"Not sure, I can find out in the control panel," he said turning to the right away from me.

"Tell me the second you know. I think Lance would want these powers next to him," I said. "So he can't allow screws up like Taelin to give them away."

"Right although my bet would be the weapons sector for quicker powering." He added a third confusing option.

I turned left and headed down the hall hearing one of his light sabers ignite. I stopped short to see if he needed help. Only if the second one activated would I go back. I didn't hear it for a while so I continued forward pressed against the wall. Seeing a Droid run past with a crate on it's back I followed. I slipped into the room where they were dropping off the crate. I saw that all of them were filled with bodies, and nearly threw up again. The Droid went down the metallic stairs into a big pit where the bodies were piled out of all the crates and burned them. I sat down thinking of how Raena would have gotten out, in hopes she was smart enough to know to get out sooner. I went into her mind plotting her escape.

_She's inside sealed in tightly. She would probably cut the bottom out, with her light saber. Wouldn't work, she'd trip the droid. Maybe she sliced out the side and dove out of it past the railing. Her reflexes were quick enough to catch it. Maybe, but these situations messed with her. No, she'd made it. Then she waited until the way was clear. Wait, they came in one at a time yet they'd left in a group._

This stopped my reasoning. I slipped out of the door pulling the hood of my cloak up to hide my face. I saw the hallway that it'd come from and sprinted down it praying it wasn't a painful death she'd come to. Sensing for her familiar soft presence I was lead above me. Stopping I grabbed my light saber and waited until she'd passed me, then I cut open a hole in the ceiling. Pulling myself up enough to see I saw her crawling away towards the disposal area.

"Get out of here, don't you remember they're flushing plasma down the tunnels and vents!" I whispered harshly as I felt the room get hotter and the tunnel turned orange.

She started to say "oh yeah" but I dropped out of view and cut a hole, right below her, in the plate wide enough for her to fall on a platform. I caught her as it fell to the ground. Thinking quickly I sprinted back from where I came from and turned right towards where Shomari went. Then I tapped into his mind mentally and lifted Raena into the air again with a blanket of Force.

"_Deuce where ya at?" I thought._

"_Hmm…just got in, what's up?" he answered casually._

"_Gonna need that info quickly, plasma coming around the corner. Had to cut Raena out of the tunnels that were getting flushed."_

"_Great thinking, why not collapse the tunnel again?"_

"_Ran into it huh? Didn't have time."_

"_Fine, the weapons division has the, 'Force Jar' as they call it_, _which is off to your left. Should be easy enough to find from there. Can sense it easier." Shomari answered quickly._

"_Thanks."_

Cutting off our connection, I dropped Raena to the floor and wrapped my right arm around her waist and pulled her with me to the left.

"Déshawn what-"

I cut her off and jumped across the flow of plasma that had dripped into the hallway. As soon as I'd cleared it, with Raena tightly hugged to me, I tucked my head in, making sure I absorbed the impact for Raena, I rolled onto my feet almost tilting forward and falling again from the extra weight.

"Wow," she laughed pushing her hair back.

"You're nice and light," I smiled at her, at a loss for words.

"You know, I'm warming up to you."

"Wonderful," I commented.

We continued down the curving hallway until it eventually straightened out and I stopped remembering Shomari's instructions. We walked down the multi-door hallway. I sensed nothing until I reached a split and I felt the "Force Jar" everywhere. I hesitated.

"Raena something's wrong." I said worry lightly lacing my voice. "It's everywhere."

"What is?" I'd forgotten no other Jedi could pick up on our conversation.

I gripped the steel handle of my light saber. The feeling grew in my chest as my eyes widened and it turned to pain. Then I heard a weak cry by my side.

"Déshawn," Raena clutched her chest I saw a painful tear roll down her face. "God it hurts."

My eyes grew wide as I realized what was happening; what ever it was that stole a Jedi's Force was attacking us. Taking a hold of Raena I pushed her to the end of the hallway softly. Then anticipating her return to my side, I blocked the hall off isolating me from her. I fought back, purging my body of the pain with a painful groan as I created a shield of Force within me to drive it out. Then I saw a form walk out of the door directly ahead of me, clothed in a brown cloak he advanced showing no facial features above his chin. A hand rose and I choked on the rope of Force around my throat. I heard Raena's anguished screams as I rose off of my feet, being hung by an invisible means. I thought of how to break his concentration, but the form penetrated my mind painfully bursting the shield; with an effect similar to glass piercing your skin from inside, I felt blood rise up in my lungs while the machine once again began to take control of me again.

"_Air."_

I felt a few seconds from death, as my mouth filled with salty liquids. I grew desperate, and had to take the one choice I didn't want. I heard Raena's pleading for me to let her in stop. And she rushed in, pink light saber ignited, at the form. His red light saber met hers and I was released, which was all I needed. I got up to my knees and as soon as Raena and my unknown opponent broke the struggle I stepped in between them. My cloak swirled out behind me covering Raena from his view. So he changed to the one opponent offered to him.

"_Leave now," _I forced Raena back with mental shoves while telling her. I didn't have time to wait for her decision. I had no confidence in her combative abilities and I'd already failed by giving away our position.

He jabbed his blade at my ribs but I was too skilled open handed for any easy attempts although I could tell he was warming up. I leaned back, sucking in air, causing him to miss at his full extension. He went into a combo swinging horizontally at my neck, then a sweep at my ankles, and finished upper cutting for chin. I ducked the first shot easily, then jumped slightly, to avoid overextension, and flipped backwards, pushing myself with a blast of Force to dodged the last blow. While in mid-flip I pushed off of his chest and landed the flip perfectly spreading my left hand out showing the open palm. It was time for me to become offensive.


	3. The Calm Before The Storm

------------------

He jabbed his blade at my ribs but I was too skilled open handed for any easy attempts although I could tell he was warming up. I leaned back, sucking in air, causing him to miss at his full extension. He went into a combo swinging horizontally at my neck, then a sweep at my ankles, and finished upper cutting for chin. I ducked the first shot easily, then jumped slightly, to avoid overextension, and flipped backwards, pushing myself with a blast of Force to dodged the last blow. While in mid-flip I pushed off of his chest and landed the flip perfectly spreading my left hand out showing the open palm. It was time for me to become offensive.

"You are shockingly skilled young Jedi, but below my level." He said in a hissing voice.

"Silence fool," I heard from behind him, causing my heart to leap.

"Imbecile!" He roared spinning to face Shomari who was standing behind him, both blades ignited.

He struck quickly at his new opponent, but Shomari, not only had time to roll his eyes at me, but he managed to wink at Raena, impressing her to no end, and leaned to the side. Both blades quickly rose up; the one in his right hand pushed it to the side, the left hand sliced towards his neck but he stopped short. Then Shomari also was choked up into the air struggling for air like I did. He was facing my worst fear, the inability to breathe.

"Tell me, should I hack through your throat roughly, or make it quick and smooth," I asked as I laid my blade on his throat.

He dropped Shomari and swung at me. I snapped out at him before he even rose his blade close enough to me, and stabbed for his neck, managing to only singe the side. Then a blade pierced his chest from behind and I knew it was over. He collapsed to the ground as I dropped the Force shield and let Raena back in.

"Hmm…he wasn't as tough as you made him look Déshawn," Shomari said thoughtfully.

"Lucky I was here the whole time I guess," I snapped back calmly.

"Maybe I was getting the 'Jar' first," Shomari held it up in his hand.

"Shouldn't you release their souls?"

"Crazy talk, it's too unstable. Best bet now is to not shake it up," Shomari said.

A hand suddenly came from the side slapping me with stinging force as soon as I reached to take the Jar from Shomari, snapping my head back and I blinked.

"Don't EVER treat me like I'm helpless again!" Raena screeched at me. "You're a typical chauvinist!"

Shomari gave me a look and he walked ahead to whatever transportation he'd used to get to me.

"What's wrong with you?" I raised an eyebrow at her trying to not get angry.

"Because you seem to have this delusion that I can't handle myself!" She shrieked pushing me making me lean back slightly.

"You should know that I'm not like that Raena, but I had to be sure you weren't hurt before I got to really work with you on a difficult mission."

"Really?" she challenged.

"I like working with you, and I wanted to be 100 sure that we got to continue working together," I admitted.

"Oh," she looked at the ground embarrassed. "I'm s-sorry I hit you. It's just, well…you can probably guess why I th-thought you were a…"

"Chauvinist?" she winced as I reminded her of her past comments.

"Yeah." She fell silent.

"Partners?" I held out my hand.

She shocked me with a hug, "partners."

We walked up to Shomari who was waiting around the corner out of sight, with a well-suppressed smirk. He'd sensed everything through me, and was trying to keep from questioning our relationship.

"She's a cute one," Shomari said to me as she walked past us.

I shrugged nonchalantly as we headed back to the dock. Just before we walked in, Shomari stopped. Raena let out an exasperated breath.

"Oh yeah, here's some data I downloaded from their computer. Don't tell your little Council about what I did for you. Your side: He was no match for you; you disposed of him and downloaded the info. I changed the access times to match the story. If they don't go for it, say Raena did it. Whatever works, should probably say it was her," he informed us.

"Nice job," I said. "Next time could you kind of pick up the pace on the download. You know I hate suffocating."

"You had plenty of time before I finished."

"As long as you were sure."

We snuck around the wall back to where we'd parked the ship. However it was gone. I nearly cursed in my frustration.

"Careful Déshawn, despite your utter failure to do so, we still shouldn't be seen," Raena said.

I stared at her, and turned back to Shomari.

"I'll get us a better ship, don't worry about it. Pay me back later," he said.

"By rescuing you probably."

"From what? Old age?" He smirked and walked out leaving Raena to snicker at me.

About 10 Droids looked up from their work and attacked as one unit. He held his hands out and loads of tools flew, weapons fired, and bodies dismembered themselves as he killed all the Droids at once. Then the man in charge jumped down and rushed at Shomari with a blaster drawn. He held up a hand and flung the single shot aside as his weapon was melted instantly, and then the man was upon him. Shomari's hands snapped to his sides and the blades crossed each other forming a scissor across his throat.

"I'm going to need the access code to your fastest luxury ship in less time than it takes for me to toss your head back to my brother and his girlfriend, any questions?" he snarled in a dangerous tone.

"N-n-none sir."

"Good, that gives you about 3 seconds," his grip tightened.

"You pick them well," Raena complimented as we were flying back to Coruscant in the newly stolen ship.

"Thank you, it's all a matter of knowing how the mind works under pressure," Shomari bragged.

"How would that be?" Raena raised an eyebrow.

"You're under informed." Shomari laughed. "Fine I'll break it down. I asked for their best ship, in a slightly more specific way but that's trivial, so he had a few seconds before I killed him. That meant only the best could come to his mind in that amount of time; he didn't have time to lie. Unless he was exceptionally quick-witted, but in that case he wouldn't have attacked me head on and so stupidly. If you were on a game show and had a few seconds to think of the fastest hand-to-hand Jedi, I'd come to mind. Same situation, only I had to make sure he wouldn't lie."

"You know, you really got to stop acting like you're the best alive," Raena commented. "It's going to get you killed one day. I bet Déshawn is more skilled than you just because he doesn't underestimate everyone."

"Yeah right," Shomari laughed. "If we weren't family he'd be like that engineer back at the federation ship."

"Shomari you've got to stop killing people." I scolded him quietly, eyes averted.

"Déshawn, you know how I feel about this, drop the subject," Shomari walked into the back, a feeling of slight disgust hanging around him. I followed him; we had a few things to finish.

"You know Déshawn," he said when I stood next to him. "I saw my strongest pillar shake today. You know how I feel about that; don't ever let me know you're not perfect. It worries me."

"When? When I was getting abused or in…the dock room." I asked hoping he was talking about the fight.

"I wouldn't care about how you fight as long as you manage to win, with or without help," Shomari waved off my loss of orientation in the fight today. "But you thought about our parents. And that made me realize, you're the emotionally strong one, and I need you to stay that way. If you crumble, I'd lose my sanity."

"Deuce, look. When I saw that corpse today, I thought of mom. It was the same position she died in," I said. I grabbed Shomari's shoulder when he turned away at the mention of the one parent he loved. "Listen to me, it was also how she looked. I remember it from when I was 5, but it was the same weapon Lance has. We've got to find out its history if we're going to find out who killed mom."

"I thought we agreed it was Lance," Shomari asked.

"Come on Shomari, you think he's had it the whole time?" I cocked my head and snorted. "I know he's disgusting, but you've worked for him."

I sensed Raena's shock. "You would've known about it and he wouldn't be alive today."

"No…" Shomari's intelligence began to overcome his impulses; "he's gotten it recently."

"I think you need to talk to Cunae, Shomari. He would know." I told him. Then I walked back up to the co-pilots chair and sat down.

"Wow, it's weird seeing how close you two actually are," Raena said thinking out loud.

"I hate Déshawn what are you talking about? He thinks because he's a little better than me with the force he's some kind of good fighter."

"And Shomari's just ugly," I answered shortly not looking back.

Raena looked at me Shomari laughed out loud; I tried to keep a straight face.

"So Deuce are you going to stay at the Temple, or should we drop you off somewhere in the middle of the air," Raena said.

"I think I'd do better in the air, but how about I room with you?" Shomari asked.

"You wouldn't want to room with me and Déshawn so I guess it's mid-air huh?" she winked at me making my heart skipped.

"_Your feelings are clear Déshawn, you've got to make sure only you know your thoughts." _Shomari_ warned._

"_C'mon Shomari you've been through this."_

"_Then you should know better than me Blazin." He used my nickname, which only admirers have used._

"_Well worded."_

"So what's the story with you two? Why do ya'll keep such distance if you're such close brothers?" Raena asked.

"I'd go crazy hanging out with this common criminal too much," I answered.

"Who's riding in the stolen vehicle?" Shomari reasoned.

"Who stole it?" I said.

"True, but it was better than walking, and way better than asking."

"You know, I think you've got a point. But 100 credits say I could've convinced them too."

"Without any mental assistance?"

"Only if Raena agreed to a few things." I answered.

"Like what?" she sounded upset.

"The mental assistance," Shomari answered for me.

She laughed as we approached the planet and she took us in for a decent.

"Yes, this will be kept under our personal guard," Mace Windu nodded to me looking intently on the Force Jar, as if it could answer everything he needed to know if he held that position long enough. "Now what of your brother Shomari?"  
"I wish him to remain with me in the Temple. He is not evil, but I don't feel he should be trained anymore. At his level, however, I feel that training would be essentially meaningless to his uncaring and undisciplined manner," I earned the stares of my brother from behind me. "Only saber training can help him, and I need not remind the Masters that I'm behind him."  
"True, young Padawan," Mace Windu nodded.

"Infinitely more powerful, the mind is," Yoda reminded me gaining a telepathic message from me.

"_Why do you bother hanging around here? We could be somewhere making money or practicing our saber techniques." _

I ignored Shomari's persistent messages until he swept out of the room in a fury at me. I shrugged him off turning towards Mace Windu.

"However your mission has failed, the Federation is leaning on us to return the Force Jar which they say was stolen by you. This won't be taken lightly and you most likely will have to answer to them personally."

"I have no object-"

"Masters forgive me!" Raena stepped forwards quickly bowing. "But Déshawn didn't do it, it was Deuce."

"True, is this?" Yoda asked me, looking past Raena who stepped back.

"Please ignore her Master Yoda. My actions alone are what took this property from the Federation," I lied slightly honest. "I felt it would be better to slow their powering process of this weapon."

"You were right, however this puts us in the line of political, and possibly actual, fire." Mace Windu scolded me.

"With all due respect Master Windu," I bowed my head slightly, "but that would seem to give us the advantage would it not?"

"Far from it," my head whipped around to face a female Jedi Master behind me to look into the wise, yet young and smooth, face of Adi Gallia. "The Jedi have dwindled to a point where even a standard army might overwhelm us, despite our heightened abilities and training."

"Then I should be allowed to handle an invasion of any type," I answered with humble cockiness.

"No doubt your abilities will grow beyond anyone in this room, but you are still far from that point," Adi Gallia's calm and knowing voice emanated irritation.

"Master Gallia, I meant to handle the negotiation angle of an invasion, although I will fight alone if asked to," I joked earning a few smiles, and a chuckle from Mace Windu.

"No doubt we may require it," Mace Windu laughed. Then his face turned serious, "however, we must keep this Jar away from Lance Kicewd at all costs."

"Go you must to Naboo and contact Senator Amidala. Seek her counsel with your new partners Shomari Jackson and Raena Colonya."

"Thank you masters," I bowed out and left the room making sure Raena came with me so that she could not discuss any more concerns with the Council behind my back.

"What was that about?" Raena yelled at me as soon as we were out of earshot heading down the wall, while Shomari went to find a practice room I planned on joining him as soon as possible. But I first had to quell Raena's anger.

"That's how it is with me and him. Have you checked my record? I've been punished for almost all of Shomari's crimes that he's committed, to nearly everyone's knowledge. Which is why I have the record and Shomari has the reputation," I said.

"Why? I mean you two _are _brothers, but that's no reason to." Raena sounded shocked at my seeming over protectiveness.

"Because that's how it has to be, but don't worry. He has the tougher deal if that's what you're looking for. But now I'm off to go train some more with him, are you going to accompany me?" I asked changing to a playful tone.

"Why of course, I have to see your legendary skills, and your brothers double swords," Raena answered smiling pleasantly.

"Well then milady," I said holding my arm out in escort fashion. "We should hurry before he's finished."

She wrapped her arm around mine with a laugh as we headed to the training room to find Shomari staring at his two steel blades with interest, his face analyzing them carefully.

"You know," he said slowly, in a thoughtful voice. "I should practice moving them faster by spinning the blades in my hand, while keeping in tune with my bodily momentum."

I grab my own steel sword and take the protective covering off of it and looked up at Shomari's smirk, "let's see if you can do it as easily as you said it."

"You don't want it with me now Blazin, I'm too fast if I can get this right," Shomari smirked.

I felt Raena's gleeful smile on my back as we moved to the middle of the room. I held the sword in a diagonal across my body in a protective two-hand grip on the sword. Shomari stood straight up, both points of his swords on the ground behind his legs. I knew what it was for, but the new position kind of surprised me, it sort of signaled a change of fighting style for Shomari. Knowing the difficulty of this I moved in with a downward slash at the right side Shomari's throat. With blinding speed he kicked his right blade up, bouncing it off of mine, sending vibrations up through my hand that seemed to threaten the strength of my arm. His left blade moved up to a parallel horizontal level and he swung it at my body. I shook my head knowing he'd struck wrong, by not using his new principle, and letting him know it. I snapped my body to an "attention" position with my sword impeding his progress, then answered by quickly slinging my sword straight out for his stomach. He twisted away and spun his right sword on the palm of his hand as he sliced with his left blade at me. Knowing he was setting me up, I was left with no choice but to fall into his trap, I blocked his blow easily. The second I went for his diversion, he gripped his right blade, following the momentum; it sliced in a deadly motion for my neck. I rolled my neck down, under the blade and up on a safer side, his other blade rotated smoothly with his wrist up at my chin. I flipped backwards, holding my sword tightly to my side, to avoid self-injury, and landed safely away from his smoothly quick and deadly blows, panting.

"Wow, I must be slipping, this is tough. I think spinning gave you a lot more strength." I said.

"I got close a lot," Shomari was informed me with a calm tone that indicated his current confidence.

He moved in confidently, rotating both his entire body with his swords; I ducked the first slash and rotated in a flip over the second blade. I braced my sword with my forearm to block his slice at my throat while I was in mid-air and vulnerable. Then I dropped immediately countering with several quick slices at his various limbs, which he bothered to slightly shift to dodge, but didn't involve anything as extreme as using his swords, to avoid them. I knew I'd have to improve a lot to stick with him, since I'd already been so far behind him in hand-to-hand combat. I decided to let the force take over. I swung in with a powerful slice at his body, seeing, a split second before he did it, Shomari shift backwards, I let a wall of force block his exit. His eyes got wide and one of his blades rotated up blocking the blow in a brilliant impromptu counter. Then another blade came up and rotated around my own sword twisting my arm up leaving my body wide open. My eyes got wide at having inspired such a smart move; I flipped over him before he even got to strike. In mid-air I extended my legs into his back pushing myself forward a little bit, but more importantly, kicked him forward onto his stomach. We both flipped onto our feet quickly and faced each other poised for another exchange of blows. Then I put my sword away quickly, Shomari following suit, as I sensed Adi Gallia approaching the room. The door opened to a dead, ashen-faced Adi Gallia scanning the room carefully, with both her eyes and mind. I instinctively put my Jedi robe back on and, summoning my light saber to my hand, hooked my natural weapon onto my belt and approached the beautiful Jedi Master.

"Déshawn, there's extremely urgent news you need to hear from the Jedi Council personally," she sounded monotone; oddly, menacingly, frighteningly, monotone. Her eyes seemed unfocused on anything in general, which made it hard for me to see her thoughts. Although I had an odd fear that, if allowed into her mind, I would find no thoughts.

"Okay," I said in a rarely hesitant tone. But hearing her message I could hardly be blamed.

"Alone," she turned her head in Raena's direction, stopping her movements to follow me, although her eyes still seemed everywhere but nowhere at once.

I swept out of the room smoothly following her down the hall to the, now dreaded, Council Chamber.

"Déshawn, the Federation has told us that a dead man was left in the cargo room where you two had left. And they demand you, Shomari or Raena confess to the murder," Mace Windu sounded identical to Adi Gallia, which was a contrast to his, usually comfortingly calm voice, and it worried me. "So not only have you stolen the Force Jar from them, and we learned one of the three of you killed a man and stole a luxury ship, but you also failed your mission by not only allowing your presence to be known, but not re-concealing it."

"Master Windu, my deepest apologies, but-" I began but was cut off.

"Déshawn Jackson, you are hereby expelled from the Jedi Order. We'd hoped you would show better judgment than to allow a man to be slaughtered in front of you, and to not follow orders from the council," Mace Windu sat back in his chair, his face inscrutable and similar to Adi Gallia's, but it showed more color than hers. Instead of the dead paleness, I recognized his dark skin, but his eyes seemed, not completely unfocused, but not looking at anything. It gave him the look of a man blinded who could not see any focal points.

"Master please, I-" I stopped, hopeless and ready to explode emotionally, and mentally. But reading the foolishness of my actions I turned and walked out of the room.

"Return your light saber, you must," Yoda, he sounded like he was forcing himself to sound like everyone else in the room, held his hand out keeping the doors from releasing me.

"As I was not the actual murderer," I began, fury filling my mind coursing through my veins at my sudden and, seemingly meaningless, expulsion. "I was hoping to keep a weapon to protect myself from any hostility I might meet among these worlds."

"It seems to that you're not the one who needs the protection from the world, but the world that should be armed against you," Windu said, uncharacteristically cold and, suddenly, stinging words.

My fists tightened in an obvious display of withheld, but seething wrath, "would that be a no Master?" I said without looking at him.

"Keep your protection, you may," Yoda conceded and the doors slid open, I could've sworn I saw a wink on Yoda's face, which replaced my anger with confusion.

I swept out of the room swiftly and headed down the hallway briskly. I entered my room quickly, and, after grabbing an extra cloak, some smoke and gas pellets, and spare oxygen tank, left without looking back.

Walking down the hall, I saw Raena, and almost wanted to avoid her, but I was drawn to her mentally; I had to tell her.

"So what'd they want?" She smiled, her hair bouncing in tune with her buoyant mood.

"I've…been expelled from the Jedi order." I hesitated, while wondering why I was so ashamed to tell her but would have had no problem telling my best friend.

Her eyes got big and glowed with a determination I hadn't seen for a while, "What? They can't do that!"

I cocked my head to the side, taking advantage of her guard being down, "and why does that affect you so?" I raised an eyebrow and added a smirk. "We've only done one mission together."

"Um…b-because…you're the uh…best partner I've had," she clumsily recovered stressing the word "partner."

"Is that all you, and I quote, 'could warm up' to me as?" I folded my arms.

"Fine, have it your way. Ever since I've started training, I've heard about you. First, it was as some legendary kid that was supposed to be unbelievably skilled. Then, as you got older, I heard of you as 'the brother of Deuce' and how you got harassed because of what your brother did. Then I saw you a few times, only one time I saw you in action, open-handed. And I was, impressed to say the least, because I've never seen a Jedi open-handed in battle. So when you destroyed those 12 simulation Droids without using your light saber I started to believe the stories and legends. Then, I heard we were going to be partners and was determined to stay aloof with you. But once again, it didn't work, and I was again impressed, mainly by your calmness. And now, after we've gone through the mission together, and I've seen you and your brother work together and interact, I want to become a regular part of both your lives. And now, your expulsion means that it's come to an abrupt stop." She sighed returning to the subject. "I'm going to go see if I can talk some sense into the Jedi Order."

"Wait…bad idea," I hid the fact that I saw her in the same light as she'd seen me. "You don't want to argue with them. You might end up with me, especially since you were my partner." I said.

"So I can vouch for you." She smiled a would-be-knowing smile that I knew was going to get her into trouble.

"Or blamed with me, they've already got me with my brother," I said. "Plus, something is going on, that I think Yoda needs to sort out."

"How do you know?"

"I don't know, it's not a hunch or anything, no feelings…it's just stupid, but I'm sure of it." I said not mentioning that Yoda might have winked, which he's believed to be incapable of doing. It seemed that it was the one way he could communicate to me without a telepathic message which everyone in the room would have been able to sense.

"Then, I'll be back." She started.

"Please just trust me," I grabber her arm gently. She raised an eyebrow seductively. I hesitated, determined to not become flustered like her. "I want you to become a regular part of my life to."

"So let me talk to the Council." She smiled at me, and turned.

I sighed knowing exactly what would happen.

Before she could reach the doors, Yoda walked out leading the rest of the Jedi counsel that followed him. He turned his head towards her expectantly as she approached him confidently.

"Master Yoda," she stopped when he held his hand up.

"Know, I do, your wish for Déshawn's reinstatement. And happen, it will not." He said slowly.

"But Master Yoda," she started again. But stopped in exasperation.

"Study this you must," he handed her a note, and turned following the rest of the Council, and seemed to be the only one among the elite Jedi's that was fully concious.

Raena turned and walked back to me, while I stood at a Jedi's attention, with my hands folded behind my back and feet spread shoulder-width apart.

"What does it say?" I raised an eyebrow and held out my hand.

Ignoring my attempt to take it from her she unfolded the note and began to read it quietly to both of us, "'you, along with your partners in crime, Déshawn Jackson and Shomari Jackson are hereby expelled from the Jedi order.' And look, all of their names are on it. Although I'm almost sure these aren't their signatures."

I had to agree. Every single signature, if they could be called that, was signed in the exact same handwriting. It was almost as if one person had signed all of their names for them, and carefully wrote each word exactly the same way. The signature had elaborate curling shapes and lines, with the last letters circling on like a race track, giving the appearance that someone very pompous had signed the letter.

"Why would he tell you to study it?" I asked. "It's obvious the problem with this letter."

"Yoda is a little bit smarter than that. There's some kind of clue hidden in here," Raena said her mindset shifting to a detective one.

"Well you know about hiding things right? Can't you just work in reverse?" I asked convinced that Yoda's clue was obvious. "Because I'm no good with all this finding things."

"I have no idea what I'm looking for, so I can't think of how best to hide it." She looked infinitely confused.

"Well I know who can find out what we're looking for." I smiled thinking of an old friend I'd met on one of my earlier missions.

"Shomari?" she raised her eyebrow as if to suggest he was my only source.

"He wouldn't have a clue, even he doesn't know this friend I'm thinking of."

We were in the cockpit of the luxury ship, now unrightfully ours, traveling towards the planet Naboo. My plan was to meet up with my friend and deliver the message the council gave to me earlier to Senator Amidala. I got up and walked towards the rear of the ship thinking of my first encounter with my best friend Trance, nicknamed for his unique ability to hypnotize anyone who looked him in the eyes for too long. We had been enemies believing each other were part of an enemy we mutually shared. Which was ironic, but also lucky, that neither one of us was able to use mental abilities on each other, or seriously injure the other. However, I did sustain a scar from my fight with him, along the side of my neck, from a lucky swing of his blade, that actually came from my own blunder with a counter I thought was brilliant. Until his light saber almost detached my head.

"Déshawn," I heard Raena's soft voice snap me out of my reverie. "You, um, wanna go train?"

"What?" I turned around startled at her shy tone.

"You know, with the steel swords." She started to gain more volume and confidence in her voice again.

"Oh, yeah sure. You have one?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Yup," she smiled.

Rather than question her source I smiled kindly and grabbed her hand taking her to a back room with a wide-open space, seemingly, for exercising. She unsheathed her sword and I raised an eyebrow. Letting my mind be overwhelmed by the ever-present force, I enhanced my vision until I noticed the length of the sword: which was about ¾ the size of my own.

"Hmm, that's interesting," I thought out loud.

"What is?" she asked.

"I didn't think you were the combative type." I concealed my own observations.

"Oh, I guessed it was time I expanded my horizons." She said it in a voice that indicated a quote.

"Ah, that's something I've heard before."

She smiled and held Shomari's sword in a ready position. Holding my hands behind my back I braced for her movements. Moving in smooth, deadly motions she came in. I leaned back letting the force flow through my body I saw her attacks coming a split second ahead of time. I ducked quickly under her horizontal slice. Following up in one single motion, she sliced at a downward angle towards my waist. I jumped in the air, flipping on a horizontal axis, over her blade. She gasped in an impressed voice but continued smoothly. She stabbed at my stomach the second I landed, and I had to immediately lean back as far as possible under the blade, in a limbo-like position. She saw this with an almost gleeful smile and sliced down at my stomach. I let my body drop to the ground, to increase my allotted reaction time, and rolled along the ground away from her slice. I half rolled back on my spine and kicked my legs out to hop off the ground from my back, just as she came with a low slice at my lying body. I held out a hand letting a tube of force connect with my own sword, summoning it to my hand. The blade shot out of its sheath right into my waiting hands. I raised it up, looking towards Raena with my eyes focused, dilated into a combat state so that I could observe more at once. Re-centering my mind on the force in my body, I waited for her move. She spun around slicing near my knees, and instead of just avoiding it; I took a more physical defense. I slapped her lead attack away and spun off of the reverberating force to swing towards her midsection. Sucking in air she jumped back, and I followed up with a continuous stab, that ended with her back pinned against the wall of a corner, with her breathing heavily. I stopped short of her stomach.

"Point," I smirked.

Reacting brilliantly she bent her left foot up against the wall, and pushed herself up into the air, then extending her right foot she pushed off the perpendicular wall escaping from the corner. She landed about 2 feet to my right while my mouth was gaping at her quickness through the air, and sword still extended at the wall where she used to be. Laying her blade on my throat and smiled.

"But I win."

"Hang on a second," I tossed my sword into the corner next to its sheath. Ignoring the fact her opponent wasn't likely to stop like I had been. "Why didn't you fight like that the whole time? I would've lost a lot quicker."

"Oh, because I'm not really good at thinking of slick things to do while fighting, like you and Deuce did back at the temple." Raena shrugged.

"Oh my god, you could beat anyone easily if you could move that quickly all the time. On the ground, you seem…um…" I struggled for the metaphor I was trying to find.

"Clumsy and uncoordinated?" her voice seemed braced for the worst.

"Like a large fish in shallow water." I finally found it.

"Oh," she seemed disheartened.

"It's like, you've got the basic concepts, but you don't get something about it. I think you're fighting…below your level." I couldn't find the right words to describe what I saw so clearly about her style.

"What? You're kidding?" She said.

"I'm the wrong one for you to be fighting. When you started attacking me I could see it. You're movements are smooth to a point my mother could only perfect. Like, you said you couldn't think of slick things like Deuce and I, but I think it's just because we impress you. You hear all the stories, and see their true, and forget about your own skills." I explain in a more complicated fashion than it really was.

"You've lost me."

"You fight like I would against someone who's just started saber work at the Temple, I'd fight a little slower, and with more basic counters so I didn't embarrass him completely. Except you're not doing it to avoid embarrassing or killing me, it's like…you're holding back." I was still struggling to describe it.

"Wait you mean I'm better than you?" she raised an eyebrow with a smug.

"No," her smile disappeared. "You're trying to not mess up too much I think. Like you didn't do anything brilliant to attack me until I pinned you in the corner and you needed some kind of an escape. Then you stunned me."

"Really? Can't you do that?" She said innocently, and I could tell she understood finally. But was just enjoying my compliments.

"Easily, but I wouldn't have thought of it for that application. I'd use it more to get somewhere up in the air. It's just your style." I said. "I'm a vertical fighter. You notice how much I changed my height depending on if it was to my advantage. Even when I flipped it was only up and down movement."

"Yeah, that's what I like about you're fighting. You can go up and down so quickly, it's really crazy to watch if you ever see yourself on video." She said.

"Hmm, I never thought to videotape myself." I said thoughtfully.

"Well a lot of people did," she said. "I've seen so many videos of you it's ridiculous."

"Wow, thanks I guess." I smiled.

"So what kind of fighter do you think I am?" she asked as I walked over and sheathed my sword and attached it to my belt.

"Hmm, I'd have to guess a fluent type fighter." I mused.

"Elaborate."

"Like your movements seem all as one big attack planned before hand. Like if you'd videotaped that. I only got to attack you once I interrupted your flow, and you can't really defend as one movement unless someone attacks with just one strike at a time. So you've got to find a way to keep attacking on the defense so you can get back into a rhythm. Trust me, you'll see what I mean later. Cause I'm letting you do most of the fighting from now on." I laughed at her.

"That's a nice change compared to before." She smirked.

"Look, that wasn't a thing about male vs. female. I just wasn't sure how well you fought, or how good my opponent was. So rather than risk my first real partner I decided to just take the sure path." I said in one deep breath.

"First real partner?" she raised an eyebrow, showing no response to my explanation. I took it to mean she accepted it.

"Yeah, everyone else was just somebody that I had to watch over the whole mission. Although they usually did something to help me in the end, I still found them all incompetent. But you I looked forward to working with, and still do." I said waving my hand nonchalantly.

Turning around I walked back towards the cockpit of the ship, and Raena came up wrapping her arms around my body and laying her head on my chest. We shared a seat behind Shomari, and I saw her slip Shomari his sword. The green planet of Naboo showed itself on the visual screen of the luxury pod, and we prepared for a landing, my mind already reminiscing of past times with my best friend Trance Pierson.


	4. Tracking Down The Enemy

------------------------------

Turning around I walked back towards the cockpit of the ship, and Raena came up wrapping her arms around my body and laying her head on my chest. We shared a seat behind Shomari, and I secretly saw her return Shomari's sword. The green planet of Naboo showed itself on the visual screen of the luxury pod, and we began our descent into the atmosphere, my mind already reminiscing of past times with my best friend Trance Pierson. Shomari expertly set us down on a large landing pad, where we saw Senator Amidala with a large procession waiting for us at the door of the port connected to the launch pad. As the ship shut down, I stood up at the opening door of the ship and walked down the stairs. Shomari and Raena followed me, and I moved quickly to the door and bowed my head slightly at Senator Amidala, my mind fruitlessly scanning for Trance's unforgettable presence.

"You know Déshawn, since I am now Senator, royal etiquette now longer applies to me." Senator Amidala nodded her greetings to me.

"Ah, you'll always be a Queen to me," Shomari grabbed her hand and kissed it politely.

"My apologies Senator," I glared at Shomari, who was grinning, and turned back to the Senator. "But the 4 of us must speak immediately."

"Of course," she nodded obligingly as we retreated into the port. "I have quarters near here."

"We should get there as soon as possible." I advised.

It took us a little under 10 minutes to reach her "quarters" which happened to be an apartment. The room had an elaborate feel to it, with white and black square patterns along the walls, matched congruently with the furniture strewn around the room. As we sat down, I noticed that the chairs and couches also formed matching squares.

"Who decorated? It's beautiful." Raena asked curiously.

"It was like this when I bought this apartment. I haven't bothered redecorating because it's kind of appealing and I've been busy traveling." Amidala answered off-handedly. "It's actually odd because the landlord nearly begged me to leave the living room like this. So I thought nothing of it and left it like this."

I rolled my eyes at the discussion and cleared my throat. "We do have important business to get to."

Raena gave me a look that seemed exasperated, as if I'd just cut off something of immense importance.

"Of course." Senator Amidala took a seat, and held out a sweeping hand, inviting us to follow suit.

"I trust that you received a message from the Council of the tense situation our mission has created?" I asked.

"Yes and I've given it some tho-" she started but was cut off.

"What time did you receive this message?" Shomari asked leaning forward looking interested suddenly.

"About 1600 hours." She sounded annoyed. "But I would appreciate it if I would be allowed to finish my sentences."

"My apologies Senator. I'll avoid future infractions," Shomari leaned back looking off into space again.

"As I was saying. I've given it some thought and it seems best that, instead of questioning the nature of how we got the 'Jar' but we attack them on the nature of it." She said. "You see, the three of you were completely unjustified in taking it, which is why the Council only told you to find out what it was. But now that we have it, they can't be allowed to reclaim it because that would only help them speed up whatever activities they're taking up in the Federation. So we must keep them stalled until we can learn more about what they're doing."

"This would seem a wise decision, as most likely it will be taken before a jury. Hopefully we can unravel this mystery before then." Shomari said sagely.

"How long do you think we will have if this is taken to trial?" Raena asked eagerly.

"Don't hope for much more than a week. Maybe less," Amidala had an apologetic tone in her voice.

"We will be done before then," I assured her.

"We will be counting on you Déshawn," the senator smiled at me.

Raena rose to her feet, and turned to me, "well we must be going. We still have one more item to resolve before we can even begin on this case."

"Ah yes, of course." I picked up on her thoughts about the note given to her by Yoda. "And of course you will have the 'Jar' examined by the best Senator."

"May the force be with you," Amidala nodded to us.

"And may the force side with you, my queen," Shomari smiled nodding back at her.

Back inside the ship Raena had spread Yoda's note on a table and we were perusing it carefully looking for the clue Yoda had given to Raena.

'You, along with your partners in crime, Déshawn Jackson and Shomari Jackson are hereby expelled from the Jedi order.'

"Raena, I don't what the big secret is, look at these signatures." I waved my hand at the note.

"So why tell me to study it?" Raena asked.

"You know, I think you're both right," Shomari got up and walked over to the note. "It's obvious the problem, but we don't understand why it's like that."

"You're losing me…" I looked at Shomari.

"In Lehman's terms need to find out whose signature these resemble," he explained in annoyed tones.

"Looks like it'd be someone rich," Raena said looking at the paper. "Probably lives near the richer section of the planet. All the curls and loops indicate a woman's handwriting."

"I know who would know this signature." I told them.

"It seems like Raena has a pretty good idea." Shomari waved off my suggestion.

"An idea what she's like, not who she is." I pointed out. "Trance Pierson could probably tell us exactly who this belongs to."

"Trance Pierson…I've heard of him," Raena said. "He's supposedly got some extra ability no Jedi has."

"He's my best friend, and although he's goofy, he's a constant source of information and facts." I answered.

"Well then, you're in charge." Deuce smiled.

"We're going to have to get to the village area."

We were walking through a thick-forested area. It was made of mostly tall, thin and strong trees. Occasionally there was a thick tree, or one that seemed to be weak. Feeling uneasy I let my mind become immersed and fused with the Force inside of me. My body is overtaken by a comforting cool sensation all over. As we continued through the forest I could see the huts and tents of the village near the edge of the forest, and suddenly I feel a warm flash on my left temple signaling danger to it.

"Get down!" I shouted as a log came swinging down from left.

Reacting quickly I use a force-boosted jump into the air and catch the rope that keeps the swinging log suspended. Balancing on the log I rode it back towards the tree that it came from, in the hopes that I can find who pushed it. I reach the branches and jump into the tree spotting a small woman running across a plank bridge that connects to a tree directly ahead of me. I run around the brush in front of me and begin to sprint across the bridge gaining on the would-be assassin. But she beats me to the edge, and the cuts the thin ropes that hold bridge together. Pulling my light saber out quickly, I cut the rope on the right side of the bridge to alter its falling course to the left instead of straight into a tree trunk. The bridge swings down and to the left, with me on it, at a diagonal motion until the middle wraps around a stray branch. The branch causes the bridge to fold around it and I'm thrown through the air into another branch. I groan in pain as I hold onto the branch and look down judging my distance from the nearest branch below me. I take a deep breath and re-center my mind on the force flowing through my body. I relax and let my mind plan my descent from the branch to the ground. Then I take a leap of faith and jump away from the branch out to the nearest tree trunk. Sliding down the vertical platform I push back through the air quickly to a branch sticking out. I grab it and my momentum causes my legs to swing and pull me into a gymnastic rotation over the bar. As my legs swing back under the branch I let go letting myself soar, flipping, into the air. Through the blur of trees from flipping, I spot Deuce and Raena waiting for my return facing the same direction I left from. I stop my rotating motions and land on the ground behind them panting, and slightly bloody in my forehead.

"You have just completed, the most complicated and useless circle ever made by a Jedi." Deuce criticized me.

"She got away, and cut the bridge okay," I said pressing my hand to my forehead to stop the throbbing pain in it, slightly embarrassed.

"The important thing is that you know who did it right?" Shomari teased.

"Shut it."

"So Shomari, I have a question," Raena changes the subject as we finish our trip to the edge of the village. "Why did you need to know the time?"

"To make sure she got the message from the real council."

"Did she?"

"Well, Adi Galla called me down at about 1800 hours so it's a safe yes," I answered.

"Not necessarily but it definitely leans that way."

"Why not necessarily?" I was now confused.

"Because we're not sure when the Council lost it."

"Halt," a large guard, with a partner stops the three of us. "ID?"

We each hand him the Jedi Certification and he nods returning them.

"Welcome to the Village of Nobles."

"Thank you sir." I nod to him surprised as I expected to have difficulties with him. But I hadn't gotten a warning from the Force so I hadn't prepared myself either.

We entered the village and looked around the many different tents, which seemed to be color-coded. The tents were green, red, blue, or gold, in no sort of particular pattern that I could tell.

"Interesting name for this village," Shomari pointed out.

"More interesting is the color of these tents," Raena said interestedly.

"What's with your focus on decorations lately? First the senator room, now these tents."

"Because each one has a higher meaning. The senators room is a ritual room, for what kind I don't know but my mother used to do a lot of rituals, and that room definitely isn't a just a place to relax."

"That sends chills up my spine," I shivered as we walked through the village.

"Well all I can tell you about that room is that it's designed to channel some kind of energy outside of yourself, unlike most other rituals which are to help focus energy inside of you." Raena said.

"So what about the tent colors?" Shomari pointed out.

"That sir," a voice from behind us caused us to whip around, "is how you tell where to get your different supplies from for the war."

"The war?" Raena cocked her head to the side.

The man, was tall, about 6' 5" he was bald, and very skinny giving the appearance of being extremely agile. He seemed to weigh about the same as me, but had an aura of power. He had tan skin, and his lanky arms were connected to very large hands.

"Yes the war against the Federation. Surely you must know about it."

"Of course," I said. "But what about these tents?"

"The green ones are food and first aid, red is for weapons, blue is for armor and shields, and gold is for information," he explained.

"You have a whole tent dedicated to information?" Shomari said. "That seems pointless."

"It's the main reason we're still here actually. You can probably tell we really don't have all out confrontations with the Federation's sizeable army. But about 80 of this camp is a well-trained in espionage. The best from where ever they came from. So we find it a good idea to have several areas to keep updated info so they don't re-report known facts, and so they don't go into a situation blind."

"Well when you put it that way," Shomari mumbled.

"Déshawn!" I heard the enthusiastic shout of my old friend and whipped around to look for his voice.

"Trance!" I shouted as he ran up to me.

I gave my best friend of 10 years a hug for a second then backed up a little to look at him. He looked matured from the last time I'd seen him, the war was sure to take some of his goofiness but I hoped he hadn't lost his sense of humor. He was shorter than me by about 2 inches but he was sure to weigh more, as he'd gained a lot of muscle. His hair was cut short and extremely neat, and it looked like a droids work.

"You got your hair cut by a droid?" I asked in shock.

"I didn't have time to do it myself anymore, from spearheading this camp, I've had to give in." he sighed. "Still got your scar right?"

"Still burns sometimes to," I tilted my head to show him that it was still there, he chuckled slightly at the sight.

"Hate to break this up, but we have something to ask you about this note," Raena produced the note Yoda had given her.

Inside of Trance's small brick house we all sat across from him at his long dinner table, which seemed to indicate he usually had guests of large numbers. He gazed at the note carefully after Raena had told him what kind of person she thought wrote this.

"Hmm, interesting thoughts Raena, but this handwriting doesn't belong to a women. It's actually the writing of our effeminate Count Popsomuo," he chuckled.

"Effeminate?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, he's the closest to a rich woman on this section of the planet you'll get. He's extremely sexist and racist, so it's easy to sneak into his camp using stereotypical stories. He's like a soft-hearted Hitler, it's his police force that enforce his ridiculous and discriminatory laws." Trance's voice turned to a darker tone at the mention of his police force.

"Who's Hitler?" Raena piped up.

"An Earth dictator," Shomari brushed her question aside. "What interest would he have in the Jedi Council?"

"What would any pitiful leader with only money to lead with want?" Trance looked at him suggestively.

"The Jedi Council controls every legitimate Jedi there is," I said understanding suddenly. "If he can control them, he can nearly control every galaxy that Jedi's are in."

"He can't control the Jedi Council, they're far to powerful for anyone to control. He's found a way to sort of…" he struggled with the words to describe what is ailing the Council. "Uh 'block' off the reasoning centers in their brains, if you get what I mean."

"You mean, he basically shut down they're souls?" Raena said in a horrified voice.

"Yeah." Trance answered.

"Do you know how?" Shomari prodded on.

"A machine called the Serum. It basically uses a brainwave pattern, powered from the mind or soul of a Jedi, to track down the Force of other Jedi's, and it blocks off all capacities that grant you self-control. The 'serum' of the machine is whatever brainwave it's utilized." Trance explained.

"Could it be used to steal a Jedi's Force?" Shomari asked.

"Yes, easily, it could be used to change, give, take, or manipulate anybody's Force, Jedi or not. It's just Jedi's stand out more to the mind of the Jedi that uses it." Trance said.

"So is this Count Popsomuo of yours a Jedi?" Shomari continued.

"Yes, he is. And it seems he's the one controlling the Serum for now. At least when the attack was made on the Council, because they've taken on his characteristics."

"What is the effective working distance for the Serum?" I asked suddenly curious.

"It can affect an entire average sized planet."

"So to work on the Council, the Serum would have to be on Coruscant right?" I spewed out excitedly.

"Yeah, and it's happened recently, so they probably are still on Coruscant!" Trance realized what I was going after.

"Then let's go to Coruscant!" Shomari stands up suddenly. "Before they can move again."

"Calm down Shomari, it'll take at least an entire day for them to get it mobile again, it's not exactly portable, or a rapid fire weapon," Trance said.

"How do you know all this?" Raena asked suddenly suspicious.

"I'm the top spy around here, and I've had a good look at it, and it's schematics and uses. Even how to shut it down." Trance answered.

"Then you're coming with us," I said.

"I thought you'd never ask. We have to make a stealthy landing though, if our dear Count sees us coming, your minds are gone for sure." Trance warned.

"And yours?" Shomari asked.

"I'm Trance Pierson, my mind cannot be touched." He smirked to Shomari's annoyance.

"How can you be so sure?" Raena questioned him seriously.

"You don't know of my unique talents do you?" he said suddenly surprised.

"Not really."

"I didn't fill them in," I said. "I was a little preoccupied." I tilted my head at Raena once to indicate that it was with her.

"Oh." He smirked again.

"So?" Raena pressed.

"They call me Trance, because I can hypnotize anyone that looks me in the eyes for any extended period of time, that is to say, a few seconds really," at these words and his sinister grin, Raena looked at the ground. "And I've found out, that this also seems to work in the reverse my mind is nearly invulnerable, much like a light saber to blaster fire. So they won't be able to penetrate my mind."

"But what if one of us is possessed, if that's the right word." Raena voiced her concerns.

"You needn't worry about that, you aren't likely to be caught, I doubt anyone would be able to find you if you really wanted to stay hidden." Trance assured her.

"I know that," she smiled confidently. "But I'm worried about Déshawn and Shomari actually."

"Well, with Shomari I could probably use my talents to free his mind, but I haven't been able to successfully hoodwink Déshawn, so I took my frustrations out on his neck. So I can only hope that my inability to control him means his mind is as impenetrable as mine. Or if he's possessed then I can penetrate his defense easier. If neither of those theories work out, we'll just have to incapacitate him until we can destroy the Serum, or kill him." Trance explained in a wordy manner.

"So I suggest that we get them first." I said quickly, not wanting to think of not being able to control myself.

"Seeing as your luxury ship is going to be seen coming from 3 galaxies over, we'll have to use the my stealth ship. It's a little less flashy even if a little…tight." Trance said.

"How tight?" Raena asked.

"Well, seeing as it was designed for a pilot, co-pilot, and 1 extra person, who usually was the spy we were dropping off, I'd have to say it's 1 person to small."

"Déshawn and I can share a seat," Raena offered.

"Perfect," Trance said with an evil grin at my red cheeks.

"When do we leave?" I ask.

"Now."


	5. The Serum

-----------------

"Well, seeing as it was designed for a pilot, co-pilot, and 1 extra person, who usually was the spy we were dropping off, I'd have to say it's 1 person to small."

"Déshawn and I can share a seat," Raena offered.

"Perfect," Trance said with an evil grin at my red cheeks.

"When do we leave?" I ask.

"Now."

As Trance's optically cloaked ship soared towards Coruscant, I suddenly felt a twinge of nervousness that surprised me. I'd never had any slight anxiety when heading into a mission, but this one was completely different from every other adventure I'd been on. I was going against an enemy that had the power to take over the Jedi Council, except for Yoda, and I wasn't sure what kind of obstacles I would have to face. And I was also worried about the effect the Serum would have on me if I were to be spotted during our fight to shut the machine down.

"Calm down Déshawn," I heard Raena whisper in my ear.

"What?" I asked dumbly, caught off guard.

"You're breathing is shallow, and you're starting to sweat," she said. "You need to relax."

"I know," I said self-consciously calming my breathing. "But facing an enemy that can take the Jedi Councils mind is nothing to take lightly."

"I'm scared to," she said. "But I'm more afraid of what will happen if we don't face them."

At these words I looked at her, and realized that I'd never heard anything worded so effectively. The repercussions of not taking on Count Popsomuo would result in far more dire consequences. The ship shuddered slightly as we made our descent into a thick, forest. The 4 of us all walked out of the ship quietly, my mind gently immersing itself into the Living Force. I felt my senses heightened, and my worries put to ease. The "clearing" we'd landed in turned out to be a wide pathway that seemed to be a single road with no turns.

"Which way?" I asked.

"East?" Shomari offered pointing ahead of us away from the setting sun.

"How'd you know?" Trance sounded impressed.

"That's the only direction this path heads," Shomari said.

"But it might be pointing the other way," Trance challenged.

"Look I'd love to hear you two clash wits any other time but this is sort of urgent. We might want to do this before he takes over the universe okay?" Raena interrupted.

I smirked and started along the path with Raena at my side, a disgruntled Trance and Shomari behind who seemed keen to finish their exchange.

"How do we know we're not being tracked right now?" Shomari asked suddenly.

"Raena." I said simply.

"What about her? I know she's not exactly eye candy but someone still might be looking," Shomari shot back.

"To put it in terms you can understand, if anyone looks through a scanner, none of us will be 'eye candy' to them." Raena retorted. "But if you'd want your good looks to show up on Popsomuo's radars, let me know."

This quieted Shomari's unneeded quips for a while.

We arrived at the edge of the woods, which was conveniently at the rear entrance to his palace.

"Security's gonna be tough here." Shomari said.

"No," Trance said slowly, eyes closed. "He's pulled most of them away hoping it'll bait a trap he has inside."

"What trap?" Raena asked.

"Not sure, but I personally would rather sneak past guards I can see." Trance responded.

"Agreed." Shomari said.

The 4 of us quickly creep along the wall, assured by Raena that's the safest place, and settle around the corner.

"I can't be affected, me and Raena will go," Trance whispered. "Don't need you two possessed, we need you for when we're deep inside."

"Wait, how quick does this thing power up?" I asked wanting to jump into the action.

"5 minutes, it'll takes us a lot longer than that to get in," Raena said instinctively.

"Then pick it up," Shomari urged them.

Shomari and I watched the pair move in quickly on the 4 guard robots, light sabers igniting suddenly, and in a flash of Raena's pink and Trance's green, they were thoroughly dismembered. Signaling for us to follow them in, we moved around the corner on light feet. I grabbed one of the droids guns and deposited it in my belt next to my light saber.

"So they can't tell I'm a Jedi immediately," I explained at the confused looks.

Everyone else followed suit and I smirked.

"I've never seen you handle a blaster Trance, sure you know how?" I teased.

"Hey, we aren't born Jedi's with a light saber," he chuckled.

We continue into the palace, looking around the extravagant halls in wonder. There are random paintings, all done by a different famous artist galaxy away, with expensive rugs stretching the length of the floor, with walls and floors of stones cut into large bricks. The rugs had a red and gold emblem that stretched the massive length of the rug, with the paintings on the wall separated by such exact precision it indicated a droids work.

"Wow, it's hard to believe there's Federation droids roaming around in here." Raena gasped.

"Where to?" I said.  
Trance closed his eyes for a moment then he pointed up a staircase leading the way, his hand gripping his stolen blaster. The staircase spirals up, seemingly endlessly, until I feel a warm tingling on my right side causing me to stop.

"Wait."

With all eyes on me I close my eyes and try to interpret the warning. It wasn't a severe flash of danger, but more of a feeling that indicates I'm overlooking something. I turn to my right and put my hand on the wall moving them around slowly. In my mind I see a heavy metal door behind the stone, but I had no idea why I was sensing this.

"What's this for?" I asked aloud as if that would get me my answer.

"What's what for?" Shomari said impatiently.

I pulled out the blaster and tapped the stone with it, the hollow echoes told everyone what I saw.

"Back up."

The simple command gave me plenty of space before I fired of 3 rounds that blasted the rock away revealing a vault like door behind it. Trance gave a low whistle, and Shomari let out a sort of snort.

"So what's behind here?" Trance turned to the group.

"It's obviously important or I would've walked by it without sensing its location." I pointed out.

Shomari pushed past me and twisted the door handle, and unsurprised found that it was locked. He pulled out his light saber and ignited the blade.

"We don't want to leave signs of Jedi work around here," I pointed out.

"And I don't want signs of a rebounded bullet around my face." He retorted.

Plunging the blade into the thick steel, the door turned a bright red and orange, the heat bounced off of my face and made me start to sweat. He dragged the blade in a large circle, cutting a giant hole in the door. He waited a few seconds to let the heated metal to cool down before attempting to kick it in. But he bounced off almost falling.

"Figures, the door is thicker than my light saber is long," he caught himself and looked perplexedly at the door.

Raena held her hands up to the door, causing it to rattle, shake and vibrate, then the slice that Shomari cut out of the door floated down the stairs and stopped at the edge of my line of sight and stood straight up and down barricading the way. Then, as Shomari put his black blade away, Raena igniter her pink blade and cut the rest of the way through the door.

We walked into a large laboratory; it was nothing like the previous areas we'd been in. The stone gave it a medieval look to it, but the complex machinery and bubbling solutions showed that it was most likely ahead of it's time by a few decades. Looking around I saw there were automated robots operating everything but no droids to worry about. I re-centered my mind in the force and scanned the room for dangers or anything that might give us trouble. Finding it all clear I walked a head slightly wondering what we should be doing in here. My mind fought to find an answer, and I was oddly drawn to the potions on a particular counter. I looked at the labels and found that most of them were poisons, such as cyanide, liquid carbon monoxide, and the like, until I reached the last one. Inside was a strange purple bubbling fluid, and I couldn't take my eyes off of it.

"Déshawn?"

"This vial, there's something important about it, I can tell." I said halting all questions.

"This table is full of poisons, why would this one interest you," Raena asked persisting her course.

"Because, look at the others…not a hint of purple in it," I pointed to the other vials in a vague manner. "What can you tell me about this Trance?"

He walked up to it slowly and read the label with a shocked look and dropped jaw. "This can't be it can it?"  
"The pronouns aren't working for me," Shomari interrupted.

"The antidote to the Serum! It was supposed to be a myth! That's how Popsomuo got it to work without dying," Trance was suddenly excited.

"Wait? The Jedi that use it die?" I said incredulously.

"Yes, and that's what's puzzled me for so long. How he killed the Jedi before he could harvest their Force to power the weapon automatically."

"You need to start telling us this before we come here." I grabbed the small vial and offered Shomari a sip of it. "There isn't a lot of it but it should help at least."

"You get the first bit, Déshawn." He said in a heroic sort of voice.

"Stop being retarded and drink some, I'm gonna get some to." I pushed it at him again.

"Fine." He reluctantly snatched the vial from me. Then he sipped a little bit of the potion then handed it quickly back to me. "Hurry up and finish it off."

"Alright, no rush needed," I said in a nonchalant tone as I drank the rest of it the purple liquid.

Flashes of intense heat on my right side interrupted the slight tingling that spread from my mouth throughout my body, where Raena happened to be standing. I turned to warn her, but realized she'd become very scarce all of a sudden. I ignited my light saber confident of the protection of the potion, turning towards the patrol of droids that had come into the room. I moved into action quickly and aggressively, almost hungry for the battle, with sharp, crisp jabs and slices I'd cut the first one into several pieces before I the rest put away their blasters for the same new weapon as the last droid I'd killed back in one the Federation's ship: a low powered light saber. I smirked at the 10 droids and beckoned them all, despite my shock and slight fear. Trance's green blade cut down one of the droids quickly, while Shomari ignited one of his shortened black blades, and Raena's pink blur was seen responsible for the death of several droids.

"Where the hell did they get those?" Trance asked as he growled killing two droids.

"Federation," I said as I used a wall of force to crush another one.

Deuce spun into motion polishing all off the droids without much resistance.

"And it shocked me even more then," I said.

"Well then," an unknown voice hissed from the corner. "Allow me to show you who gave them their wonderful weapons."

"Cunae!" Shomari's voice was suddenly sharp as well as dangerously close to matching Taelin Cunae's tone.


	6. The Wrath of The Serum

----------------------

"Well then," an unknown voice hissed from the corner. "Allow me to show you who gave them their wonderful weapons."

"Cunae!" Shomari's voice was suddenly sharp as well as dangerously close to matching Taelin Cunae's tone.

"Ah," the short, yellow-skinned, fanged wicked creature grinned. "I'm surprised you remember me so well."

Shomari snorted derisively, "I doubt I'll ever forget, no matter how hard I try."

"Yes," he said in a low hiss. "A Jedi's mind is infinitely difficult to empty."

The group stood back a little ways, poised for action, watching Shomari's interaction with his old colleague.

"So tell me, how long have you and Lance been without your toy?" He asked advancing on the small, but imposing, figure, in a braver act than I would've dared at the moment.

"You're very well informed, if a little rocky on details," Taelin closed his eyes as if thinking.

"Tell me!" Shomari's ignited blade pointed towards Taelin's throat.

"Such rash anger may cost you the information you seek," he said again, as if he were holding extraordinarily important information.

Shomari's other blade rose to form his famous scissors around Taelin's throat, "you're not the only one who knows."

"So, why invade the dear Count's home? This definitely won't go well on your surprisingly clear record. Maybe this was Déshawn's fault too?" Cunae pressed.

"I know how many times you've faced with death. The two of you are distant relatives no?" Shomari let the blades close until they began to singe Taelin's throat. "But pain, that's a stranger that you cross the street to avoid isn't it?"

Taelin gasped in pain, his eyes watering from the heat of the light saber, trying to wriggle free, but Shomari held him firmly with his mind. Raena gasped and started to move forward until I grabbed her.

"You know I've known you to murder, but torture is a little beyond you." He managed to squeak out.

"ANSWER ME!" Shomari began to slide the blades into the thickest part of his neck, blood beginning to drip out.

"Recently," Taelin whimpered, this caused Shomari to pull back both blades with a snap. "About a day after you stole the Force Jar from us. Which by the way your precious Senator is now arguing for, and not getting very far at all; you may lose it soon."

"It's amazing," I said stepping forward, in an attempt to speed up the questioning process. "That you remain so firmly stuck on this idea that your schemes are beyond us."

"Ah, the more meditative of the Jackson brood. You know what's more amazing?" He tilted his head at me. "That after all these years, you've just now gotten a lead on your dearly departed mother."

I flung my hand out, a powerful wave of force slung him into the steel wall. I opened my hand again and yanked his light frame back towards me, grabbing him by the collar.

"What's the Count doing?" I asked.

"What every other man is…getting as much power as he can." Taelin said with a dry chuckle.

I dropped him back on the ground, "can he power The Serum without the Force Jar?" I said.

Cunae pushed his hands on both sides of his neck to slow the bleeding, "Not as well, most decently powerful Jedi would be able to shake it off. It most likely won't even affect you."

"Can he make another one?" I questioned, still worried.

"It would take decades, that one has been in existence since the machine itself was built. The fool probably doesn't even know how." Cunae laughed bitterly.

"Where's the Count now?" I asked in a tone of finality.

"I suggest you finish your little climb," Taelin said laughing as red liquid oozed from between his fingers.

As we continued our climb up the eternal stairs, my legs began to ache and I began to wonder about Cunae's state of health as his hands were tied in such a way that he couldn't prevent the blood from seeping out of his throat.

"You guys didn't tell me that you stole the Force Jar." Trance said laughing. "Man I wish I could've been there."

"It wasn't that spectacular," I mumbled still deep in thought.

"Tell me how that thing is operated exactly." Raena said in a small voice from behind me.

"Operated?" Trance sounded confused slightly.

"Yeah, if you were using it, how would you do it?" She said sounding like she was looking for something specific.

"Well, it draws on the power of the Jedi that's in control. It pulls your power out of your body and sort of 'processes' it, in a sense, into a corrupted form that is the 'Serum' itself. It's like turning a grape into a raisin and feeding it to an allergic to put it simply." Trance sounded worried as he even said it.

"Oh no…" Raena said quietly.

"What?" I pried.

"From the sound of it, the Serum corrupts the user, to be taken over just like the victims, after a while I'm not sure how powerful it is. So that the first person to make hypnotic like suggestions might be able to control anyone that over-uses The Serum." Raena explained.

"You're right!" Trance sounded shocked. "That Cunae scum probably is controlling the Count right now. That's why he gave him the Droids and The Serum itself."

"Let's hurry up," Shomari said. "Taelin might not know this, but if that thing draws on the user's power, he doesn't need the Jar at all. He can simply pour more of his power into it and not use the power the Jar provides. That thing could be working at full capability right now!"

Realizing what this meant in the end, I broke into a full tilt spring until I finally reached a door a few seconds later. I burst into the door to find the Count in the seat of a huge machine. It wasn't as complex as I thought it would be, but I could feel the horrible power of it. There were 2 rings, which crossed each other, sort of like 2 straps across one's shoulder would. The huge circles were made of steel that looked slightly oxidized. The seat had a helmet with opaque goggles attached to it that was currently flipped down over Popsomuo's face. The helmet was hooked into several wires, connected to the lid with suction cups, and plugged inconspicuously into the back of the chair. The Count was yelling in agony his body bruised, bloody, and covered with the sweat of exhaustion and pain. I looked around the room to find Lance Kicewd standing in front of the suffering Count with an evil smile on his face.

"More power! Put in more power!" Lance yelled at him, a spear charged with electric energy hanging loosely in his hand, the smoke indicating recent use.

I ignited my blade, acting quickly; I leapt at Lance slicing his electro spear in half. Then turning, I used a force-boosted jump to slice through the rings of The Serum. The helmet slowly lifted up, a heavy hissing sound indicated depressurization, and the Popsomuo rose slowly, a light saber gleaming in his hands. He advanced upon me slowly, as Lance turned to a console pressing several buttons, several bounty hunters walked into the room. In a seeming trance-like state Count Popsomuo advanced on me, while the bounty hunters all attacked Trance, Raena, and Shomari. Huge, thick metal slats began to snap into action sealing the room in a sort of impromptu dome. Lance somehow managed to disappear during all of these distractions but I was to accustomed to his methods to worry about him.

"You know," the Count's voice sounded like Lance, which indicated that Lance was in control of him. "After you two stole the Jar, you almost ruined our plans."

"Oh?" I ignited my own black blade raising it to a defensive position; meanwhile behind me the sounds of battle indicated that the bounty hunters were attacking already. I didn't risk a look behind me however.

"Fortunately, Taelin figured out how to power The Serum. Me. You see, if I poured all my energy into it, there wouldn't be any power lost. So we kept our hold on the Council, and surprisingly, the Count himself was more powerful than the measly powers we'd gotten from the dead Jedi trainees," the Count's evil smirk was similar to Lance's, and it sent shivers up my spine.

"Trainees? You killed children!" My eyes grew wide in horror.

"Well, you can't kill full grown Jedi first. You have to work your way up. If we had the Jar right now we could be getting real Jedi powers now." He laughed. "In a way its your fault that we have to still kill children."

"You…bastard." I couldn't wrap my mind around the concept of slaughtering children yet. "I can't believe you killed children to power this twisted machine."

Popsomuo laughed again. "Those little yumlings were surprisingly powerful, what do you feed them?"

"I can't let you leave this room alive." I made the statement with such determination that I heard the sounds of shots bouncing off of light saber blades stop, slight humming still emanated from jetpacks.

"Really? I was just thinking about how your line ends here. You'll fall victim to The Serum the same way your mother did." Popsomuo turned around and walked over to the machine, and flipped a switch.

I watched in horror as the rings continued to spin, as if my slices to it had no effect on it in any way.

"The great thing about the Serum?" the Count stood in front of the ghastly machine. "It works in reverse."

Purple energy filled the room, the screams of hundreds of Jedi children shrieked violently in my ears as he sucked their lost souls into his body. The Count's power began to rise, and I could feel it suffocating me. As I heard distant cries for "mommy" or "daddy" or help in general, tears flowed down my face. I dropped to my knees screaming in anguish, as I pressed my hands to my ears to try and block out the cries of small children, my light saber clattered to my side causing the blade to retract. Then it all stopped suddenly, and I looked up at the Count. He'd grown pale and had become visibly larger. His light saber hummed sinisterly at his side as I summoned mine to my own hands. I felt weakened, drained, and stressed. I didn't feel like I had to power to win anymore. My determination sapped out of my body, much like the life of those dead children. The Count grinned, and waved his hand. I felt the room shudder suddenly, a crack developing in the middle of the room, as it separated down the middle. I looked back stunned at what the Count's new powers entailed as he split the room in half. Hearing Raena's screams I ran to the edge of the newly formed cliff as I saw her falling short in her jump to get on the same side as me. I reached out and caught her arm swinging her up onto the ledge with me. Several jetpacks fired as some of the bounty hunters flew up to try and reach Raena. Then, blaster shots rang out destroying the jetpacks causing them to drop out of the air.

"We'll hold them off! Handle the Count!" Trance yelled as I saw the other half of the uppermost tower pushed away towards the ground, and the inevitable death of my best friend and only brother.

"no…Deuce…Trance" my body cringed violently as I heard a loud crash and saw rubble and dust rise. "NO!"

Then turning back to the Count, I raised my blade to point directly at the cackling Popsomuo's throat, marking my final target. I heard Raena's light saber ignite next to me as she stepped up beside me.

"Well, that was a shame. I just didn't want more help leaping over." The Count shook his head in mock remorse.

"First all those children, now my best friend, and my only brother!" I was pushed to a point of angst and rage that I'd never felt before. "Don't worry about leaving this room alive-"

"More of a half of a room now really," the Count pointed out chuckling.

"You'll be lucky if your smoldering corpse is recognizable as human." I whispered in a fury, ignoring his quip.


	7. Battle of Unnatural Powers

--------------------

"First all those children, now my best friend, and my only brother!" I was pushed to a point of angst and rage that I'd never felt before. "Don't worry about leaving this room alive-"

"More of a half of a room now really," the Count pointed out chuckling.

"You'll be lucky if your smoldering corpse is recognizable as human." I whispered in a fury, ignoring his quip.

The Count laughed evilly for a second, then beckoned Raena and I, "show me."

Moving in with lightning speed I sliced at his head, he ducked under it with surprising ease and it was then that I realized that he'd grown exponentially. I followed through with a downward motion that ended with me trying to stab my blade down into his back during his flip. I couldn't move for a second, which gave him time to avoid my follow up. After I was freed I came in again, he leaped to the side and kicked me in the chest not bothering to use his blade. I smirked at his brilliance. He'd used a move that wasn't an immediate danger to my life, so I hadn't sensed it. That's why most Jedi's sense only blaster shots and light saber attacks, because getting hit will most likely spell death. But a kick could damage me, weaken me, and soften me up until he can kill me. I coughed slightly as I fell onto my back, and looked up into the hand offering me help. I took it instinctively and looked into the beautiful face of Raena Colonya.

"Raena, you remember when I said I was going to let you do most of the fighting?" I said slowly. "I lied."

"Déshawn no…don't." she whispered afraid I was going to keep her from helping me.

"I…need your help." It was the first time I'd ever spoken the words and Raena's eyes nearly lit up in spite of the grim situation.

She smiled at me, giving me a quick kiss on the cheek and turned to Popsomuo. I ran in at the Count directly, and she leapt into the air blending into the shadows. I took several distracting attack patterns on the Count at once, which resulted in me bouncing around him as he fought to keep track of me. Raena slipped out of the shadows near the wall next to the Count slicing a deep gash in his arm as he barely dodged her sneak attack. I could see Raena's devilish smile as she once again blended into her surroundings, amazing me in a way that I'd never known before.

"And she thought I was good," was all I could say.

Then I ducked an attempt to detach my head. I heard his light saber clash above my head, with Raena's own blade. I stabbed straight up for the Count's stomach during his semi-second of vulnerability. He spun, pushing Raena away with a wall of Force, his feet planting into my shoulders, as I was down on one knee, forcing me onto my face. I felt his weight shifting, which painfully forced opposite sides of my face into the hard stone floor, as he battled Raena at high speeds.

"Get off of him!" I could hear the utter frustration in Raena's voice that she couldn't move him from me.

"Calm down, I'm okay," I told her. "Focus on striking him, not freeing me."

I felt her slow down to a more focused than desperate tone as she skillfully picked her targets until she slipped in two quick blows that knocked Popsomuo backwards. I flipped onto my feet immediately rubbing my face and summoning my dropped light saber to my hand. Raena disappeared once again and I jumped from the wall to behind the staggered Count swinging for his waist. He quickly rolled forward kicking my light sabers handle. It soared and the Count held out his hand, as I watched in horror, to catch my only weapon. But it never came down; it was as if gravity no longer applied to that single object. I smirked, at the same time Raena launched herself from the ceiling landing behind the Count. Both blades humming dangerously in her hands, as she flipped her hair out of her face, Raena's smirk showed all the confidence I hadn't seen in her during our spar. Thinking quickly I fired the blaster I'd stolen earlier at the Count, who bothered only to deflect them away, and not even take the time to bounce them back at me. Raena sliced the blades, in a Deuce-like, scissors motion, causing the Count to have to flip backwards over Raena. Seeing her opportunity, she tossed my light saber back at me. I caught it easily and ignited the blade. We both began to attack Popsomuo viciously. I sliced at his head, he blocked it easily, but Raena stabbed at his side. He sucked in his breath and bended his middle section away in a manner that ended with the three of our blades interlocked. Pushing the Count backwards he fell onto his back and lay on the stone momentarily stunned by his head hitting such a hard object.

"You know Popsomuo," I started as he got up. "I can almost appreciate that without the slaughtering of those helpless children," my blade pointed at his throat as he rose. "You'd be dead by now."

"Déshawn," Raena was in my mind, which startled me, as Deuce was the only one I'd ever known to invade my mind with such ease and lack of noticeable presence. Then I smirked, but she was the mistress of stealth. "If I completely destroy that machine he might lose his unnatural power."

"Go for it."

Raena faded back into the dark recesses of the room as I came after the Count alone for the second time that day. I swung several wide swipes at him, attempting to draw him into an attack, but he boredly slapped them away. And I hesitated, realizing that he wasn't even trying, and just playing with me. Seeing this as his opportunity to finish me off, he yelled coming at me hard. His first swing that I blocked threw me back about 5 yards. Then I heard a clattering behind me as Raena began to chop the Serum up as completely as she possibly could. Suddenly, the Count slowed down and his power behind each blow was considerably reduced. The psychotic glow in his eyes seemed to recede slightly.

"Whatever you hit, do it again," was all I could think to her.

"No! Stop it!" He launched himself towards Raena, but had to pull up short when my blade intercepted him.

"We're not through…" I said calmly.

I swung at his head, and he spun away from me attempting to make a quick escape. However, I cut him off again; he stopped and looked from me to Raena and the Serum with a wild look in his eyes as he tried to choose.

"Come on tough guy, fight me without sapping away the souls of others." I challenged him.

"That's it!" He said; rushing over to his console he slammed his fist down on a red button. An alarm bleeped as the Serum's rings began to hum and circle each other in an intricate pattern. Purple energy began to emanate from the rings, while Raena continued to viciously chop the machine as much as possible. Panicking, which I rarely do, I pull out the blaster again and fire it wherever Raena's body wasn't. Consequently I end up hitting the helmet of the Serum and all the purple energy suddenly disappears. Then the Count's maniacal laughter is replaced with an ear-piercing scream of pain. He dropped to his knees, his hands pressed hard over his ears, and roared at the top of his, clearly, massive lungs. Purple gas filtered out of his pores, mouth, and other places until he was swallowed in the vapor of spirits. I heard the voices of the children fill my head again, except they were now happy, and playful voices. Then, I saw the souls of the Jedi Council pause in front of me, Mace Windu gave me a wise nod and then he vanished with the rest of the escaping souls. After a few more seconds the smoke cleared out of the room, and all that was left of Count Popsomuo's shriveled and weakened form shuddering on the ground. Then, I heard the sounds of panicking droids below on the ground where Shomari and Trance had fallen on the other half of the room.

"Wait…" I said quietly to myself as Raena arrested the Count. "Could that be?"

I sprinted to the edge of the room and skidded to a halt looking down the edge. I saw two distinct light sabers ignite and begin to mow down the droids. Ecstatic I jumped from the edge, to the tree across from me, and bounced down to the ground. Sprinting at top speed, drawing my light saber, I ran through the last droid looking at a disheveled Trance Pierson and Shomari Jackson.

"Oh my god! You're alive!" I jumped on the two pulling them into a hug. "How'd you make it?"

"How'd we make it?" Trance laughed, clearly feeling the same as I had. "We thought you and Raena were goners!"

"Yeah I was sure all that soul-sucking made him too tough for you without my help!" Shomari sounded incredulous as well.

"Well," I chuckled happily. "Raena was a great help. What about you two?"

"You know how you jumped down here?" Trance tilted his head towards the tree I just jumped down. "Well you're not the first one to think of that."

I laughed happily and hugged the two again as Raena appeared by my side, having walked over while I was distracted.

"I just contacted the Council…" she looked apprehensive. Then her face jokingly turned into a smile. "They're all normal again! You saved them!"

"No." I stopped her. Then squared my shoulders to her, my back turning to Trance and Shomari. "**We** saved them. Raena, I know haven't always judged your skills favorably, but against the Count, considering how much power he had, you really helped me in a big way. I couldn't have done it without."

"Oh forget all that mushy stuff," Raena waved off my guilt quickly. "Show me you're thankful."

Taking my cue I pulled her close to me kissing her deeply, while Trance and Shomari teased me behind my back. When we separated Raena had a content smile on her face, and teasingly bit her lower lip.

"Wow," she smirked. "I must've helped you pretty well back there."

"You have no idea," I winked at her.

"Not that this isn't turning me on," Trance said walking past us headed towards the ship. "But I think I'm going to head back home. Anyone need a lift?"

I laughed to myself and followed Trance, arm around Raena, and Shomari standing back slightly.


	8. Into Hiding

-------------------------

"Wow," she smirked. "I must've helped you pretty well back there."

"You have no idea," I winked at her.

"Not that this isn't turning me on," Trance said walking past us headed towards the ship. "But I think I'm going to head back home. Anyone need a lift?"

I laughed to myself and followed Trance, arm around Raena, and Shomari standing back slightly.

"Congratulations," Master Windu bid me. "You have silenced the threat of more deaths of Jedi."

"In order, thanks also are." Master Yoda added. "Saved the Council, you have."

"I couldn't have done it without your clue Master Yoda." I said bowing to him humbly.

"Apologize, I do, for such ambiguity. But warn you, I had to. However, solve the puzzle, you have. Proven your skill, you have. And at such youth." Yoda commended me. "Proud of all of you, I am."

"No doubt we are indebted to you," Mace Windu picked up. "But we're not out of hot water yet."

"Master?" I was confused. What other trick could the Federation be pulling now?

"Lance has alerted the Federation to what the 4 of you have done and they are now demanding your arrest. It seems that, unannounced of course, the Count was an important political post for them, and they won't take the loss of a Jedi on their side lightly. So they have gone public saying that all of you are murderers, citing your actions aboard their station, and your recent slaying of Popsomuo." Mace Windu explained, a grim expression crossing his face.

"What could I have done?" I argued. "You know what he's done with the Serum, and what he would have done."

"We know Déshawn, you anger is better directed toward those now after you. They've laid a large bounty on your head, unfortunately 'dead or alive'." Windu sighed. "They want an example made of you to scare off potential opposition."

"Master Windu," Raena stepped forward. "Why not expose the Count for what he was and tell what his plans were? It would at least level the playing field."

"Because, the Federation has proof that we were incapacitated during this time. Attributing it to a 'ill disturbance in the force', making us sound as if we were sick and had no idea what we were doing." Master Adi Gallia spoke up from my left. "As much as we've argued, the courts will not believe us."

"This is why you, Déshawn, and Raena are being ordered into hiding. We've failed to convince them of your innocence and bounty hunters, police, and other forces have been deployed here to find you. You don't have much time." Windu explained in a more hurried tone.

"Leave this planet, you must. Guide you, we will not. To important you are, to be captured. Contact you, we will, when it is safe again." Yoda said waving his hand causing the doors to open.

"Because it is only you and Raena that are being targeted, only you two must hide. Trance, Shomari," Master Windu turned to the other two. "Help them in whatever way you can, then leave them on their own. A larger group is easier to track."

"Yes master," Raena and I bowed together.

"We will sir," Trance said in an unconventional way. "Your wish is my command."

"Of course masters." Shomari bowed, showing a surprising amount of respect.

"So, what was that about?" I asked Shomari as we were in my room looking around for anything I might have unpacked upon our return that I would need.

"What do you mean?" Shomari grabbed my practice blade and tossed it on my bed.

"You seemed pretty willing to do what the council wants this time around," I said smirking.

"You know Déshawn, that sniveling Taelin actually made me think. And I felt guilty when I did." Shomari started, piling smoke pellets into a small container and laying it next to my training sword. "He's right you know. You've taken the blame for all my recklessness and now it's time that I returned the favor in whatever way I can. And that's by doing what your council is saying now. Hiding you the best I can."

"So," Trance burst into the room. "All ready for your honeymoon?"

"Just about," I said clipping my light saber to my hip and tossing on my robe. "Got a nice beach picked out?"

"Tatooine." He said simply packing the strewn items into my opened luggage. "Best hiding place for anyone."

"A little easy to find though, that's why it attracts such smugglers and convicts isn't it?" I said warily.

"Come on Déshawn, you should know me better. I'm putting you underground," he smiled evilly. "I won't even be able to find you when I finish."

"As long as you're sure." I shrugged picking up my baggage.

Standing on the sunny landing pad Raena and I stood across from Trance and Shomari. Shomari looked almost unwilling to see me leave, while Trance was more optimistic, as he wore a small smirk on his face.

"Well Déshawn," he held out his hand. "See you when we dig up that evidence you two lovers need."

"Heh, don't make it over a month," I gave him a cocky smirk.

"3 weeks if I don't cut corners." Trance said. "The hard part will be presenting it so that you guys are off."

Suddenly, I felt a powerful surge of force from inside the temple. Looking up to the sky, I saw several ships landing in front of the Jedi Temple.

"They move fast." Raena commented in a small voice.

"How much are we worth?" I asked.

"Well, if you two don't leave soon, I might turn you in and retire." Trance laughed as he turned and went back into the Temple. "They aren't getting through this door for a long time." His light saber ignited enforcing his point.

"Shomari," I grabbed his attention in a hurried tone. "Don't forget what you and I talked about. You have to trace the Serum machine back to the owner of the same time as mom died."

"I'll phone in on every clue," he said grimly.

"We can't risk being traced," I indicatively tapped my temple. "But drop me a line anyways."

Shomari nodded and turned around running next to Trance reinforcing the 2-man defense of Raena and I. I figured the Council didn't interfere lest they should lose their weak foothold in the political realm. We rushed onto the ship and I took the main pilots seat while Raena sat next to me and booted up the systems.

"Engines?" I asked.

"Check."

"Navigation?"

"Check."

"Armory?"

"Check."  
"Stabilizers?"

"Just go! They're right behind us."

"So much for by the book," I joked as I lifted the ship off and we soared off away from Coruscant into our unknown future.

* * *

Yes…this is the final chapter of this part of the series. If you can't tell, I'm definitely going to do a sequel, so worry not! It's in the works already. 


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